Health
Ebola death toll passes 1,000 as outbreak shows no signs of slowing
Key Points
More than 1,000 people have now died in the outbreak of Ebola in the Congo, as medics struggle to curb the fastest-growing epidemic of the virus. Dozens of deaths are being recorded each day and modelling has forecast that, in a worst case scenario, it could become the worst Ebola outbreak in history. The outbreak, centred on the north east of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), passed the four-figure death milestone little more than two months after it was first declared.
More than 1,000 people have now died in the outbreak of Ebola in the Congo, as medics struggle to curb the fastest-growing epidemic of the virus.
Dozens of deaths are being recorded each day and modelling has forecast that, in a worst case scenario, it could become the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
The outbreak, centred on the north east of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), passed the four-figure death milestone little more than two months after it was first declared.
By contrast, the worst outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever on record, which struck West Africa from 2014 to 2016, took eight months from the first case to reach 1,000 deaths. It went on to kill 11,000 people.
The latest figures from the DRC’s national public health institute show 2,536 confirmed Ebola cases and 1,033 deaths, with at least 738 patients in isolation or hospitalised.