Congo Ebola outbreak is 2nd largest, 2nd deadliest
(CNN)The current Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo — with 426 total cases, including 245 deaths — is now the second largest and second deadliest in history, according to Thursday’s report from the nation’s Ministry of Health.
A 2000-01 outbreak in Uganda included 425 cases and caused 224 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The deadliest outbreak occurred in West Africa in 2014, when the disease killed more than 11,000 people.
“This is a milestone nobody wanted to hit,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic wrote in an email. On average, Ebola — which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging — kills about half of those infected, but case fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied. The latest outbreak in Congo, which began in August, has a case fatality rate of 57%.
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