KINSHASA, July 15 — Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have surpassed 2,000 as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned the true scale of the outbreak could be “at least two to four times” the reported caseload.
A total of 2011 confirmed cases, including 754 deaths, were reported, according to the latest report released by the country’s health authorities on Tuesday. The announcement came as the WHO warned earlier in the day that undetected transmission, community deaths and rapid geographic expansion threatened to keep the response behind the epidemic curve. Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said the current outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, was growing faster than any Ebola outbreak. The outbreak, declared in mid-May, has spread to five provinces and is already the third-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded, according to the WHO.
Xinhua
