KINSHASA, July 6 — The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached a grim new milestone, with the total number of fatalities surpassing 500, national health authorities announced in an official update released Sunday.
As of the latest data compilation, the outbreak has recorded 1,561 laboratory-confirmed Ebola infections, of which 506 have resulted in death. So far, 254 patients have successfully recovered from the virus, while 628 confirmed cases are currently receiving care in isolation facilities or hospital settings. Health officials are also investigating 354 additional suspected cases, which have already been linked to 110 deaths.
The outbreak has spread across 36 separate health zones distributed across three DRC provinces, and transmission trends continue to move in a worrying direction. Official epidemiological data shows weekly confirmed case counts have kept climbing, with the 25th and 26th epidemiological weeks of the outbreak marking the highest infection levels recorded since the event began. Each of these two weeks reported more than 300 new confirmed cases, providing clear evidence that sustained community transmission is still ongoing across affected regions.
In response to the growing public health crisis, the World Health Organization announced Thursday that a new clinical trial has begun recruiting patients in the DRC to test promising candidate treatments for the current strain of the virus. The ongoing outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo ebolavirus, a pathogen for which no approved vaccine or specific, standardized treatment currently exists. The trial is being hosted at the CME Ebola treatment center located in Rwampara health zone, Ituri Province — the geographic epicenter of the current outbreak.