KINSHASA (The Thursday Times) — The death toll from Africa’s Ebola outbreak has passed 5,300, with all but four of the deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday.
The agency’s figures show 5,376 deaths: 5,372 in the DRC and two each in Kenya and Uganda. Some 10,444 people have been infected across the three countries, and more than half of those infected have died. The toll in the DRC passed 5,000 only days ago.
The DRC declared the outbreak, its 17th and largest, in mid-May. It is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there are no approved treatments or vaccines. Clinical trials began in recent weeks of Ervebo, a vaccine that has proved effective against the more common Zaire strain.
Uganda recorded 20 cases, almost all among people who had travelled from the DRC, before it was declared Ebola-free in August. Kenya recorded its first ever cases in October, with nine infections and two deaths.
Nigeria reported its first imported case in more than a decade in October, with no deaths. Health authorities there said two suspected cases in the northeast of the country had tested negative in two rounds of testing. France reported a single case in July, a health worker returning from the DRC.
