Ebola outbreak warning as death toll nears 5,000 and WHO warns rare new virus is spreading faster than expected

Ebola outbreak warning as death toll nears 5,000 and WHO warns rare new virus is spreading faster than expected Nearly half of the people who have caught the new and rare variant of Ebola have died as health officials warn the fatal virus continues to spread across parts of Africa Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in the ongoing Ebola outbreak as health experts warn there is still no vaccine for the new rare variant. The virus has continued to ravage parts of central and eastern Africa months after the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed its 17th outbreak in May. Since then 9,500 people have been infected and 4,600 have died. This outbreak has heightened fears among health officials as this virus is a new and rare variant called the Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine, drug or cure. Although this outbreak started in the eastern region of the Congo, it has since spread to other countries including Nigeria. To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed. Nigeria confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive for the virus, the health ministry said. The woman began showing symptoms on October 7 and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on October 11, where she was later diagnosed with Ebola. Health minister Muhammad Pate said authorities had started tracing 44 people identified as contacts of the patient. Kenya has also been grappling with the virus as it confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since recorded nine infections. Uganda reported two Ebola deaths after the outbreak was reported in DR Congo, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has since declared it to be free of the virus. DR Congo, however, had struggled to get to grips with the new species of the virus, with a fatality rate of nearly 50% of cases. Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, said on X that "we are facing an extremely serious threat". He said: "This Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has already become the most geographically extensive in history, affecting several countries spread across three regions of Africa." The latest outbreak is the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record and is on track to exceed the deadliest on record - West Africa's regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016 - which killed 11,000 people, the WHO has said. The WHO warned the outbreak continues to outpace efforts to track and slow it. The speed of transmission has been fuelled by mass population movements, violence, mistrust, and poor working conditions for frontline health workers. DR Congo's Ituri province, in the north east of the country bordering Uganda and South Sudan, remains the epicentre of the outbreak with thousands of cases reported. It has now spread to eight provinces, coinciding with an escalation of decades-long conflict in the east between government forces and rebels. Five months into the outbreak, health authorities remain alarmed. More than 70% of new cases involved people who were not among known contacts, while at least 60% of deaths occurred outside treatment centres as of early October, government data showed. Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, including blood and vomit, or through contact with contaminated materials and surfaces, such as bedding and clothing. While the Bundibugyo virus currently has no approved vaccine, trials for the jab started at the University of Oxford started in July.