WHO says Ebola outbreak death rate 30-50% as chief visits DRC

The World Health Organization has revised the Ebola death rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to between 30% and 50% based on confirmed cases. Anaïs Legand of the WHO’s high threat pathogens team said: “It’s huge. It means that up to five out of 10 people are likely to die.” She added that a patient discharged on 27 May after two negative tests was the first confirmed recovery in the outbreak.

The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths since the outbreak was declared on 15 May, among more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases. Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Kinshasa and planned to travel to the outbreak centre in Ituri province; the trip was pushed back by a day.

He said, “That thing can be stopped,” and criticised travel bans as measures that “don’t help much.” Addressing Congolese citizens, he promised to do “everything in my power to help” and warned the true scale may be significantly larger because the virus is believed to have circulated undetected for some time.

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, Ituri province

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