Ebola outbreak now third largest recorded and "spreading rapidly"

Ebola outbreak risk in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has increased as deaths reach 177 and cases near 750. Nearly 1,400 contacts are being traced. The outbreak is already among the largest on record despite being first reported only a week earlier. WHO reports the outbreak is spreading rapidly and has moved national risk from high to very high, while regional risk remains high and global risk remains low. WHO officials say delays in detecting and responding allowed the outbreak to grow. The earliest suspected case involved a health worker who developed symptoms on April 24, and WHO learned of a potential outbreak on May 5, when cases had already expanded.

"The latest numbers already place the outbreak as the third largest on record, though it was only first reported a week ago, on May 15. And WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak is still "spreading rapidly." A revised WHO assessment has moved the risk level from "high" to "very high" at the national level, while risk remains "high" at the regional level and "low" at the global level, Tedros added."

"WHO officials have acknowledged that a delay in detecting and responding to the outbreak enabled it to balloon, and that they are now racing to get ahead of the virus. WHO representative Dr. Anne Ancia spoke during today's briefing from the DRC, saying that when officials got to the area, they found the virus was "already rampant and silently disseminating for a few weeks already.""

"In the outbreak investigation so far, the earliest known suspected case was in a health worker, who developed symptoms on April 24 in Bunia, the capital city of Ituri. WHO only got word of a potential outbreak on May 5, with news of a cluster of deadly, unidentified infections that led to the deaths of four health workers. By the time a WHO team arrived, there were already 80 cases."

""Now we are sprinting behind [the virus] so that we can really try to control this outbreak, and because it is still transmitting for the time being, yes, the number [of cases] will keep rising for some time until we are really able to put all the response operation in place," she said."

Read at Ars Technica