Symbolic imageCongo's Ebola outbreak reaches a sixth province as deaths pass 2,100
Congo's Ebola epidemic has reached a sixth province, Bas-Uele, after a man died there, Africa CDC said on Thursday. Government figures put the toll above 2,100 deaths in more than 4,500 cases.
The man was a motorcycle-taxi driver who had travelled to Buta, the provincial capital, from Isiro in Haut-Uele and sought treatment at several hospitals before he died, said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research. Some of his colleagues tried to take the body by force, prompting police to intervene and raising fears that others had been exposed to the virus. Bas-Uele borders the Central African Republic and is hard to reach, with poor roads and limited communications; six of Congo's 26 provinces are now affected.
Fastest-growing outbreak on record
The WHO said on Wednesday, 12 August, that this is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak recorded and on course to pass the 2014-16 West Africa epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people. About 90% of cases are in Ituri province, and the rare Bundibugyo virus behind the outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment.
Doctors pull back over trial ethics
The Telegraph reports that some Ebola doctors are stepping back from work with the WHO in a dispute over the ethics of drug trial design during the emergency; the paper gives no further detail.
Other opinions
The Telegraph covers only the WHO trial-ethics dispute, not the spread; Daily Sabah carries the AP wire on the epidemic without mentioning the row.