DR Congo Ebola outbreak: more than 5,100 dead as WHO adds new vaccines to trial

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now killed more than 5,100 people, making it the deadliest in the country's history and the second worst ever recorded anywhere.

By 1 November, more than 10,500 confirmed cases and 5,126 deaths had been recorded, according to figures shared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Congo's health ministry says roughly one in every two people infected has died. Ituri and North Kivu in the east are the worst affected, but cases have now been found in eight of the country's 26 provinces.

The outbreak, declared in mid-May, is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Doctors can only treat the symptoms.

The WHO says two more experimental vaccines, one developed by Oxford University with the Serum Institute of India and another by Moderna, will be added to the clinical trial in Congo once national regulators approve them.

Health officials say the virus is still spreading in ways they cannot track. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says about eight in ten new cases come from people who were not on lists of known contacts, and about a third of deaths have happened at home or in communities before patients could be tested. A WHO official, Dr Patrick Otim, described the death toll as a very tragic milestone.

The disease has crossed borders. Uganda reported cases earlier in the outbreak, Kenya confirmed eight cases and two deaths in October, and Nigeria recorded one case, a patient who was later flown to Switzerland. The only Ebola outbreak to kill more people was the 2014 to 2016 epidemic in West Africa, which claimed about 11,000 lives.