Ebola Kills More Than 5,300 in DR Congo as Outbreak Crosses Borders

The Democratic Republic of Congo's 17th Ebola outbreak — and its largest — was declared in mid-May and has since become a regional emergency. Africa CDC data shows 5,376 deaths in total: 5,372 inside the DRC and two each in Kenya and Uganda, out of 10,444 confirmed infections across the three countries, a fatality rate exceeding 50 percent. The outbreak is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain, against which no approved treatment or vaccine exists. Clinical trials of the Ervebo vaccine have recently begun, though that vaccine has so far only proved effective against the more common Zaire strain. The virus has crossed international borders several times in recent months. Uganda recorded 20 cases — almost all in people who had travelled from the DRC — before being declared Ebola-free in August. Kenya reported two deaths and nine infections in October, marking the first recorded Ebola cases in the country's history. In Nigeria, two suspected cases in the northeast were confirmed negative after two rounds of testing; the country reported its first imported case in October, its first in more than a decade, with no recorded deaths. France also reported a single case in July involving a health worker who had returned from the DRC.