Congo Ebola
Confirmed Ebola cases in Congo pass 8,000 as a health worker shortage hampers the country's deadliest outbreak.
Congo's Ebola outbreak has passed 8,000 confirmed cases. Health workers are running out.
Congo's health ministry reported 8,067 cases and 3,901 deaths as of Sept. 26, the Associated Press reported. The fatality rate has topped 48%. Cases now span 63 health zones across seven of the country's 26 provinces.
The outbreak began May 15. It's Congo's 17th recorded Ebola outbreak and its deadliest, caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, the AP reported. Officials traced its origin to Mongbwalu health zone in Ituri province. They believe the virus circulated undetected since February, IBTimes reported.
The World Health Organization called the outbreak out of control. High death rates outside hospitals point to delays in finding cases and getting patients care, the AP and ABC News reported.
Fifty health workers have died since the outbreak was declared, according to Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures cited by ABC News. Others have gone on strike over unpaid wages. Routine health care in Ituri province fell 13% between April and June as resources shifted toward the response, the U.N. humanitarian office told ABC News.
This crisis has now outpaced the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people. By the same point in each outbreak, Congo had logged more than double the case count of the earlier crisis, ABC News reported, citing Africa CDC data. Case numbers have eased in recent weeks in some areas, including Ituri and Haut-Uele provinces, even as the virus reaches new zones elsewhere, ABC News reported.
Violence has trailed the response. In Butembo, a ruling-party official named Marie-Célestin Karondwa was attacked Sunday after defending the government's Ebola measures on a radio program. She was in critical condition, the AP reported, citing the party. Near Mambasa, a group armed with machetes stormed a funeral and drove off a response team that had come to secure a body suspected of carrying the virus, injuring one worker, IBTimes reported.