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Qatar of holding three of its pilotsXi calls for shift to prevention as floods batter ChinaVenezuela frees 131 more political prisonersMore Syrians in Germany lose refugee protectionAudit finds gaps in Taiwan's counter-drone defencesIndia drafts rules to open nuclear power to private firmsHichilema takes early lead as Zambian count resumesParis prosecutors open investigation into tax portal hackReport details leverage behind Situational Awareness lossesArgentina has lost 30,633 companies under MileiAt least five dead in Indiana floodingIran detains two French diplomats over alleged infiltrationCanadian petition to expel US ambassador passes 170,000 signaturesIndia raises $50bn from its diaspora and ends swap facility earlyOpaque start-ups build erotic AI industry from Cyprus and MaltaBritain's biggest EV battery plant shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stallThird drone debris find in a day on Turkish coastsForecasters put 95 percent odds on a very strong El NiñoSecondhand booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riotsIran rejects US claim to Hormuz as ship attacks mount600 drones head for Moscow as Russia strikes Kyiv and Kryvyi RihDeath toll passes 50 after magnitude 7.7 quake off FloresIsraeli strikes kill 11 in south Lebanon, deadliest since June truceColombia asks Trump to suspend tariffs as quake toll climbsRhine hits record low at Kaub as Hungary sinks barges to cool reactorUS readies unprecedented economic measures against IranUS boat strikes pass 200 dead as Ecuadorean fishermen describe attacksBond traders struggle to price $70bn of credit backstops behind AI buildoutAlibaba says its open AI models passed three billion downloadsDeath toll rises to 68 after Lake Kariba ferry sinkingTaliban mark five years in power as UN warns of rights crisisEU aircraft join fight against Belgium's record wildfireUS presses Netanyahu over settlers as Qusra homes are occupiedMokha port halts operations as Houthi missiles hit MaribSeoul proposes talks to end the Korean war as North rejects drillsChina-led perovskite solar plant outperforms silicon in three-month field testOpenAI revenue run rate passes $40bn as revenue chief departsHamas leader in Cairo as Kushner trip nearsWHO says Congo's Ebola outbreak is outpacing the responseTurkish parliament passes amnesty law for PKK membersMorocco detains scores near Ceuta as feared mass crossing fails to materialiseChina publishes ecology reports to bolster South China Sea claimsMyanmar says more than 300,000 Rohingya verified for repatriationPetrobras detects signs of oil off the mouth of the AmazonChina condemns Japanese politicians' moves at Yasukuni ShrineUS inflation cools as wages again lag behind pricesModi offers free exam coaching after youth protests in IndiaOil from grounded Russian tanker reaches Oman's coastPanama Canal cuts draught again as Mexico pitches rival corridorUkraine's idle ports cost $1.75bn as farm exports fallFormer Chinese premier Zhu Rongji diesAt least 20 killed in communal clashes in central NigeriaIran accuses Qatar of holding three of its pilotsXi calls for shift to prevention as floods batter ChinaVenezuela frees 131 more political prisonersMore Syrians in Germany lose refugee protectionAudit finds gaps in Taiwan's counter-drone defencesIndia drafts rules to open nuclear power to private firmsHichilema takes early lead as Zambian count resumesParis prosecutors open investigation into tax portal hackReport details leverage behind Situational Awareness lossesArgentina has lost 30,633 companies under MileiAt least five dead in Indiana floodingIran detains two French diplomats over alleged infiltrationCanadian petition to expel US ambassador passes 170,000 signaturesIndia raises $50bn from its diaspora and ends swap facility earlyOpaque start-ups build erotic AI industry from Cyprus and MaltaBritain's biggest EV battery plant shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stallThird drone debris find in a day on Turkish coastsForecasters put 95 percent odds on a very strong El NiñoSecondhand booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riots
Bota
Symbolic image: Ebola deaths in eastern Congo pass 1,500 as treatment centres are torchedSymbolic image

Ebola deaths in eastern Congo pass 1,500 as treatment centres are torched

3 sources

More than 1,500 people have died of Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in just over two months, according to official figures reported on Thursday. That makes it the second-deadliest outbreak on record and the fastest-killing ever documented. Arsonists have attacked at least a dozen treatment facilities as misinformation spreads.

What happened

Official data reported on Thursday, 30 July put the toll at 1,521 deaths from 3,442 recorded cases as of Tuesday, 28 July, a rise of roughly 50 percent in deaths within about a week. The outbreak in the east of the country has killed more than 1,500 people in just over two months, which makes it the second-deadliest on record and, by speed of killing, the fastest ever documented. The worst outbreak so far, in West Africa in 2014-2016, killed more than 11,000 people out of at least 28,000 cases, but over a far longer period. The virus involved is the Bundibugyo strain, for which no vaccine and no treatment are approved; the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency in May. The Telegraph reports that at least a dozen facilities have been attacked since Congo declared the outbreak, with arsonists setting treatment centres alight as false claims about the disease circulate. Ebola was first identified in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and is passed on through bodily fluids such as blood or vomit.

What could happen next

The burnt clinics remove isolation capacity in exactly the areas where case numbers are climbing, and with no licensed vaccine or drug against the Bundibugyo strain, containment rests on contact tracing and isolating patients, both of which require communities to cooperate with responders. British scientists are developing a vaccine against this sub-strain using the technology behind the AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot, but nothing from that work is available in the field. The jump of about half in recorded deaths in a single week is the newest figure in the outbreak, and the next official update will show whether that pace holds. Whether responders can rebuild the destroyed centres, and under what protection, will shape the next weeks.

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