Ebola outbreak expands across three DR Congo provinces

The number of confirmed Ebola infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has climbed to 689, with 139 deaths recorded, according to the latest situation report issued by the country's health authorities on Friday, News.Az reports, citing Xinhua.

Health officials reported 17 newly confirmed cases on Thursday, including five fatalities. All of the new infections were identified in the eastern province of Ituri.

The outbreak, linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, has now spread across 29 health zones in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.

As of Thursday, authorities had also registered 168 suspected Ebola cases, including 64 deaths.

The report pointed to a number of ongoing operational difficulties affecting the response effort. These include resistance to post-mortem swab testing, limited capacity at Ebola treatment centers, shortages of infection prevention and control supplies in North Kivu, weak disease alert reporting systems across the three affected provinces, and a funding shortfall of 21.5 million U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported on Thursday that two Ebola-related deaths had occurred in a camp for internally displaced people in Ituri.

The current outbreak was officially declared by the DRC's health ministry on May 15. It marks the country's 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified in 1976.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev