Image copyright Reuters Image caption Medical teams are vaccinating people to help stop the spread of the virus

The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the worst in the country's history, the health ministry says.

Almost 200 people have died since August, officials say, with more than 300 confirmed or probable cases.

A vaccination programme has so far inoculated about 25,000 people.

DR Congo has suffered long years of instability and efforts to relieve the disease have been hampered by attacks on medical workers.

"At this point, 319 cases and 198 deaths have been registered," health minister Oly Ilunga said.

"In view of these figures, my thoughts and my prayers go to the hundreds of families grieving, to the hundreds of orphans and the families which have been wiped out."

About half the victims were from Beni, a city of 800,000 in the North Kivu region, the national health authority said.

The current outbreak is the tenth DR Congo has suffered and the worst since the country's first epidemic in 1976, so early in the disease's history it had yet to be named.

The outbreak in 1976 of what was then an unknown disease in a remote part of DR Congo sparked terror, but was brought under control by experts quickly identifying the virus' nature and using quarantines.

Ebola is spread via small amounts of bodily fluid and infection often proves fatal.

Early symptoms are flu-like, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and internal and external bleeding.</s>The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to more than 200.

The health ministry said it had recorded 201 deaths from the virus and that 291 cases have been confirmed since the outbreak began in August.

About half of the cases were in Beni, a city of 800,000 people, in the North Kivu region.

The United Nation’s Department of Peacekeeping on Friday called on armed groups active in the region not to hinder efforts to fight the disease.

Teams responsible for responding to the outbreak “have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment and kidnapping,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga said.

“Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit have even lost their lives in an attack,” he said.

The outbreak is the 10th in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976.

Ebola is a serious infectious disease that can spread rapidly through small amounts of bodily fluid. It causes internal bleeding and can be fatal.

Since a vaccination programme began on August 8, more than 25,000 people have been innoculated, the health ministry said earlier this month.</s>Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that people need to be prepared for the worst. Redfield said the Democratic Republic of Congo’s newest Ebola outbreak may not be containable.

Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, said that if the Ebola outbreak becomes endemic in the Congo’s North Kivu province, it shows “we’ve lost the ability to trace contacts, stop transmission chains and contain the outbreak.” In this situation, Ebola could spread, which could negatively impact both trade and travel, according to a report by Becker’s Hospital Review.

“I do think this is one of the challenges we’ll have to see, whether we’re able to contain, control and end the current outbreak with the current security situation, or do we move into the idea that this becomes more of an endemic Ebola outbreak in this region, which we’ve never really confronted,” Dr. Redfield told The Washington Post.

According to The Washington Post, if international Ebola containment efforts fail in the Congo, it would mark the first time the virus was not stopped since 1976 when Ebola was first identified. The current Ebola outbreak is going on its fourth month, totaling 300 cases and 186 deaths as of November 4th.

The problems with containment of this particular Ebola outbreak stem from the fact that the disease is spreading in an active war zone with several armed groups attacking health officials, government aids and civilians. Some civilians with Ebola have refused treatment, and health care workers are still being infected. About 60 to 80 percent of new cases do not show an epidemiological link to prior cases.

The daily rate of new Ebola cases had more than doubled in early October. In addition, there is community resistance and a deep mistrust of the government as the raging outbreak continues to spread through an active war zone.

The World Health Organization (WHO), CDC and other international health organizations say they are worried about the current Ebola outbreak spreading to port cities like Butembo, which will only exacerbate infection transmission rates.</s>The current Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the worst in the country's recorded history, with 319 confirmed and probable cases, resulting in 198 deaths, the country's health ministry said.

Ebola virus disease, which causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever, is endemic to the region. It's the 10th outbreak the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen since 1976, the year that scientists first identified the deadly virus near the eponymous Ebola River.

"No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing," the country's health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, said in a statement late on Friday.

The outbreak is also the third most severe in the recorded history of the African continent, following 28,652 cases in the 2013-2016 outbreak in multiple West African nations and 425 cases in the 2000 outbreak in Uganda, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the total amount of people who have reported symptoms of hemorrhagic fever since the country's latest outbreak began Aug. 1, 284 of them have tested positive for Ebola virus disease. Nearly 28,000 people have been vaccinated in the outbreak zone since Aug. 8, according to the health ministry.

The outbreak has been heavily concentrated in the northeastern province of North Kivu, where about half of all cases have been recorded in the conflict-torn city of Beni, which is home to 800,000 people. People have also been infected in neighboring Ituri province.

North Kivu and Ituri are among the most populous provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and share borders with Uganda and Rwanda. They are also awash with violence and insecurity, particularly in the mineral-rich borderlands where militia activity has surged in the past year, all of which complicates the response to the outbreak.

There is also misinformation and mistrust from the community, partly due to the security situation, and there's a reluctance among some residents to seek care or allow health workers to vaccinate, conduct contact tracing and perform safe burials, according to the health ministry.

"Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack," the health minister said in his statement Friday night.

Although the outbreak remains "dangerous and unpredictable," new measures to overcome these challenges are having a "positive impact," the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement Thursday after a joint mission to assess the situation.

"The fact that we have so far prevented Ebola from spreading into neighboring countries is a testament to the hard work and determination of staff from all partners," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has recently adopted an "active approach" to the armed groups operating in North Kivu, providing a "period of calm" in and around Beni, although some attacks have persisted in surrounding villages.

"We are facing numerous complex challenges, but it’s encouraging and inspiring to see that our efforts to deliver as one UN have been extremely successful in many hotspots and will help to end the outbreak and save lives," United Nations under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in the statement.

Last month, the WHO heeded the recommendation of an expert advisory committee to not declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern -- a proclamation that would have mobilized more resources and garnered global attention.

The committee chairman, Robert Steffen, said they came to the decision by looking at three main criteria.

"Is it extraordinary? Is there a risk of cross-border spread? Is there potential for requiring international response?" Steffen told reporters in a teleconference Oct. 17.

Despite its conclusion, the committee emphasized in a statement that the Congolese government, WHO and partners "must intensify the current response" to the ongoing outbreak and this "should be supported by the entire international community," otherwise "the situation is likely to deteriorate significantly."

"I’ve accepted the recommendation of the committee but this does not mean that we are not taking the outbreak seriously," WHO's director-general, Tedros, told reporters. "We will not rest until this outbreak is finished."</s>Congo's latest Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry said. The deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east, the ministry said. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths. Nearly 100 people have survived Ebola. This is Congo's 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku, in the Equateur province, the ministry said.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said late Friday that the figures now exceed that outbreak. "No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing," Kalenga said. "Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack."

This is the first time an Ebola outbreak has occurred in Congo's far northeast. The health ministry has said teams responding to the Ebola outbreak are attacked three or four times a week on average, a level of violence unseen in the country's nine previous outbreaks of the virus. Ebola is spread via the body fluids of infected people, including the dead.</s>KINSHASA, Congo — Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country’s recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry said.

The deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east, the ministry said. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths. Nearly 100 people have survived Ebola.

This is Congo’s 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku, in the Equateur province, the ministry said.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said late Friday that the figures now exceed that outbreak.

“No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing,” Kalenga said. “Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack.”

Armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east have staged regular attacks in Congo’s Ituri and North Kivu provinces, complicating the response by health officials who are also meeting community resistance.

Health officials, however, have managed to vaccinate more than 27,000 high-risk contacts, of which at least half could have developed Ebola, the health minister said.

“This epidemic remains dangerous and unpredictable, and we must not let our guard down. We must continue to pursue a very dynamic response that requires permanent readjustments and real ownership at the community level,” he said.

The head of U.N. peacekeeping operations vowed this week to do more with Congo’s government to help improve security in the country’s east.

This is the first time an Ebola outbreak has occurred in Congo’s far northeast. The health ministry has said teams responding to the Ebola outbreak are attacked three or four times a week on average, a level of violence unseen in the country’s nine previous outbreaks of the virus.

Ebola is spread via the body fluids of infected people, including the dead.</s>KINSHASA, Congo — Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country’s recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry said.

The deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east, the ministry said. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths. Nearly 100 people have survived Ebola.

This is Congo’s 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku, in the Equateur province, the ministry said.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said late Friday that the figures now exceed that outbreak.

“No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing,” Kalenga said. “Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack.”

Armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east have staged regular attacks in Congo’s Ituri and North Kivu provinces, complicating the response by health officials who are also meeting community resistance.

Health officials, however, have managed to vaccinate more than 27,000 high-risk contacts, of which at least half could have developed Ebola, the health minister said.

“This epidemic remains dangerous and unpredictable, and we must not let our guard down. We must continue to pursue a very dynamic response that requires … real ownership at the community level,” he said.

Ebola is spread via the body fluids of infected people, including the dead.</s>Harried doctors fighting the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) fear it may become the worst outbreak of the deadly disease in the region to date, as an ongoing insurgency slows treatment and accelerates contamination.

“We are absolutely concerned about the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” a senior official with USAID said on Thursday. “It is occurring in an area of active conflict, so physical insecurity is a persistent challenge and complication to the ongoing response efforts.”

On the positive side, the official said the outbreak is “not comparable at this point to the outbreak that occurred in West Africa in 2014,” meaning it does not threaten to spread across an “incredibly large geographic area.”

Ebola cases have been mostly limited to two towns in the North Kivu province of the DRC, but the rate of new cases has accelerated during the past few weeks. USAID and the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) have deployed dozens of experts to work with the DRC Health Ministry since the outbreak began in August.

On Friday, Sky News watched doctors don biohazard suits and struggle to handle the influx of patients to a “ramshackle hospital” made from “wooden huts and temporary tents” in the city of Beni. The hospital only has 60 beds, but Sky News correspondents counted 92 new patients admitted on the day of their visit, among them a pregnant woman and a three-year-old girl.

Doctors reported 308 “confirmed” or “probable” cases of Ebola in the outbreak, approaching the highest total ever seen in the Congo. Thirty of them are children under ten years of age, suggesting the latest strain of Ebola is spreading faster among children than previous strains. So far, 191 patients have died.

International aid workers said local residents are working more smoothly with doctors than some previous populations affected by Ebola, a disease that tends to spread panic and mistrust among its victims. Officials were especially optimistic about the success of “community surveillance” programs designed to track the movements of infected people and quickly identify others who may have been exposed to Ebola. More effective vaccinations were also credited with keeping the death toll down.

The bad news is that CDC Director Robert Redfield warned on Monday the current outbreak may not be containable because it is spreading through an active war zone, making it harder to implement the procedures that have been helpful so far.

The Washington Post augmented Redfield’s warning with some discouraging notes about the difficult situation faced by aid workers:

Dozens of armed militias operate in the area, attacking government outposts and civilians, complicating the work of Ebola response teams and putting their security at risk. Violence has escalated in recent weeks, severely hampering the response. The daily rate of new Ebola cases more than doubled in early October. In addition, there is community resistance and deep mistrust of the government. Some sick people have refused to go to treatment centers, health-care workers are still being infected, and some people are dying of Ebola or spreading the virus to new areas. An estimated 60 to 80 percent of new confirmed cases have no known epidemiological link to prior cases, making it very difficult for responders to track cases and stop transmission. In late August, the United States withdrew some of the CDC’s most seasoned Ebola experts who had been stationed in Beni, the province’s urban epicenter, because of security risks.

The outbreak is threatening to spread into much less isolated towns, such as the trading port of Butembo, introducing the risk of wider transmission chains that become even more difficult to trace.

Angry rock-throwing mobs have confronted some medical teams when they attempt to secure the bodies of fatal Ebola victims. Experts on the local population explained they are sometimes terrified at the sight of medical teams in hazmat suits, driven by deep distrust of the DRC government, which they blame for keeping them in poverty and allowing armed rebel groups to prey upon them. Some locals apparently believe their government is fabricating Ebola warnings in a bid to frighten them away from their homes.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Tuesday demanding safer working conditions for medical teams in the outbreak zone, but concerned analysts said the international community has a poor track record of controlling insurgents in the Congo, even lacking reliable information about how many rebel groups are active in the area. Meanwhile, the DRC government has been criticized for abandoning rural areas and shifting its troops into the cities, where the government fears mass demonstrations could break out.</s>An outbreak of Ebola in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 200 people. Almost 300 Ebola cases have been confirmed since the outbreak began in August, authorities say.

The health ministry said half of the cases were in Beni, a city of 800,000 people, in the North Kivu province.

The outbreak is in a conflict zone where dozens of armed groups operate. Aid agencies have been forced to suspend or slow down their work on several occasions since the outbreak.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga said his response teams "have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment and kidnapping."

"Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit have even lost their lives in an attack," Ilunga said.

Ebola was detected in the DRC in 1976. The current outbreak is the tenth since it was first discovered.

The World Health Organization has warned the virus could spread to nearby countries, including Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

Medical workers have lots of experience dealing with Ebola outbreaks in the DRC. Fortunately, they have new tools to fight the deadly virus. A new vaccine has shown it can protect people who've come into contact with Ebola victims, and more people have learned techniques to keep the virus from spreading.

However, old problems persist with every outbreak. Some people still refuse to believe Ebola exists and have hidden infected family members. Traditional burial practices also put people at risk.</s>KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo's health ministry says the latest Ebola outbreak has now become the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases.

The ministry said late Friday that the deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths.

This is Congo's 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said the figures now exceed that outbreak. He said no other epidemic has been as complex.

Armed groups vying for control of Congo's mineral-rich east have staged regular attacks in Congo's Ituri and North Kivu provinces, complicating the response by health officials who are also meeting community resistance.
The death toll of the ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that started in August, rises to 200 people. This is the deadliest ebola outbreak in the history of the country.