Symbolic imageWHO says Congo's Ebola outbreak is outpacing the response
The Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is outpacing efforts to contain it, the WHO says. It is spreading faster than any previous outbreak of the virus.
Al Jazeera reported on Sunday, 16 August that the response in the northeast of the country is falling behind transmission, citing officials of the WHO in Africa and of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Kinshasa. Al Jazeera puts the death toll at 2,000, while WHO-based counts cited in earlier reporting stand at more than 2,100 deaths out of over 4,500 cases. The virus has reached a sixth province, Bas-Uele, where a motorcycle-taxi driver died in the town of Buta and a struggle over his body raised fears of further exposure. According to the WHO, the outbreak is on course to become the deadliest on record.