At least 360 killed and 1,274 infected as Ebola continues to spread in DRC

Ebola has killed at least 360 people and infected 1,274 as of Monday, June 29, in less than 45 days since the outbreak was declared on May 15, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent’s top health body.​

Satish Pillai, incident manager for CDC’s Ebola response, announced in a media conference on Friday that the “CDC is raising our Ebola response to a Level One activation, which represents the highest level of response.”​

Less than two months since the outbreak, it is already “the second largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in DRC,” Pillai said. The largest in the DRC was in 2018, killing over 2,200. But that death toll was over a span of almost two years. In less than a month and a half, the current outbreak – the 17th recorded in DRC – has already claimed over half the number of lives claimed in the 23 months of the 2018 outbreak.​

It is also the “third largest Ebola outbreak documented globally,” added Pillai. However, the CDC’s director general, Jean Kaseya, had warned a day earlier, “If we don’t stop this outbreak now, for sure it will be the largest Ebola outbreak ever.”​

That record is currently held by the West Africa outbreak that killed over 11,000 and infected 28,600 in three countries between 2014 and 2016. However, spreading at a rate of over 3.5 times the 2014-16 outbreak, the current outbreak could become the worst ever.