WHO says Congo’s Ebola outbreak is on track to surpass the deadliest one in history

GENEVA (AP) — The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo is on track to surpass the deadliest one in history that killed over 11,000 people out of more than 28,000 cases, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

“At its current pace, it’s on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. That outbreak horrified the world and jolted efforts to develop a vaccine.

The outbreak in eastern Congo, considered the fastest-growing in history, has killed over 2,000 people out of more than 4,300 cases. The outbreak was declared on May 15, but health authorities now say sequencing showed it began months earlier, in February.

It is unlike most previous Ebola outbreaks because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments, though efforts to address that are underway.

Experts say this outbreak is moving faster than efforts to track and manage it in a remote part of eastern Congo facing ongoing conflict, near the borders with South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.

Most of the new cases and deaths are still being reported in communities outside the reach of health workers in a region of poor infrastructure and ill-equipped health centers. Some health workers have gone on strike over lack of pay. Misinformation about the virus continues to circulate in communities where some are wary of outsiders, keeping some people from clinics.

“The outbreak had a big head start, still way ahead of us. and we’re playing catch-up,” Tedros said.

Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO’s director for health emergency alert and response operations, said the agency expects the peak of the outbreak to be reached in six months.

“But … that’s the moderate scenario,” Mahamud added. “There is a one-case scenario where this outbreak may last nine months to 12 months.”