The central African nation health ministry has stated that more than 2,000 cases of Ebola have been recorded, with two-thirds (2/3) being fatal, making it the largest outbreak of the disease in history.
The outbreak, which began August 2018 in North Kivu province, has proved difficult to bring under control due to mistrust and violent attacks on health care workers.
According to the Ministry,
"Since the start of the epidemic, the total number of cases stands at 2,008, of which 1,914 have been confirmed [by lab test] while 94 are probable,"
"In all, there have been 1,346 deaths (1,252 confirmed and 94 probable) and 539 people have recovered."
"In recent weeks, the trend has been positive, although vigilance is still necessary,"
The ministry further said it was important to retain the overall perspective, despite the breaching of the symbolic threshold of 2,000 cases.
Although, there have been fewer attacks on Ebola teams by armed groups, which means health workers have "recovered some of the lost time to contain the spread of the epidemic," it said.
The outbreak is the 10th in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the disease was identified in 1976. It is the worst on record after an epidemic that struck three African countries between 2014-2016, leaving more than 11,300 people dead.
