Over 10,000 infected with Ebola

 

TT-AP

 

Published 15:12

 

A health worker sprays passersby with disinfectant at a checkpoint between the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Image from last Friday. Photo: Dieudonne Dirole/AP/TT

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the ongoing outbreak has surpassed 10,000, according to authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—the country most severely affected.

Nearly half of the more than 10,000 infected individuals have died from the disease, according to the Ministry of Health in Kinshasa.

This makes it the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history, as well as the fastest-growing one.

Cases have also been confirmed in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.

The Ebola virus is an RNA virus that causes hemorrhagic fever. There is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain—which is responsible for the current outbreak—though development is underway.