Record-breaking African Ebola outbreak surpasses 4,000 confirmed cases

World Health Organization officials reported nearly 4,500 confirmed Ebola cases identified in the months-long outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed nearly 2,100 deaths from the virus during a Wednesday briefing.

The ongoing epidemic marked the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record and was tracking to become the largest known outbreak in history, surpassing West Africa’s 2014-2016 outbreak, Ghebreyesus said. He described the outbreak as having a large head start, with health officials still struggling to identify the chains of transmission. Local case surveillance and tracing remained the WHO’s top priority and the best way to stop the spread, Ghebreyesus added.

How long has the outbreak been active? Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that health officials deemed it impossible to tell when the outbreak officially started. WHO initially declared the outbreak in May, but investigators have since confirmed that it began two to three months earlier, Ghebreyesus said.

Any word on possible Ebola vaccines? The director general discussed several vaccines that were currently undergoing trials, but noted that about 880 patients recovered from the virus without therapeutics or vaccines. Two vaccines progressed to the human testing phase, while animal studies involving the virus appeared to show promising results, Ghebreyesus said.