More than 4,000 confirmed cases of the Ebola virus have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the first time during the current pandemic, according to official government data.
The outbreak, the second largest in the world, has been described as the fastest-spreading ever recorded.
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Experts believe that infections were occurring months before the outbreak was declared on May 15 and that the actual number of cases may be much higher than the official tally.
The public health institute of the Central African country reports in its most recent report that the total number of cases has reached 4,053, including 1,850 deaths.
Cases have been recorded in five provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Upper Uele, and Tshopo.
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A report published in the journal *Science* last month concluded that the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo began in January—or even earlier—in Ituri. Researchers identified more than 500 suspected cases between mid-January and May 15.
Factors such as delays in detection, compromised surveillance, military conflict, and a lack of vaccines and treatments for the virus strain responsible for this outbreak have caused efforts to contain the disease to fail this time around.
To date, only the 2014–16 outbreak in West Africa has been larger, with more than 28,000 recorded cases in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Source: CNN Greece
