Historic Ebola outbreak rapidly spreads to seventh province in the Congo, threatens neighboring nations

KINSHASA, Congo — The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, the world’s fastest-growing outbreak of the disease on record, has now spread to seven provinces in the African country, local authorities said.And it’s showing no signs of slowing down.According to the governor of the northwestern province of Sud-Ubangi, Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe, laboratory tests by Congo’s national research institute found in a sample the Bundibugyo virus, the rare kind of Ebola that caused the current outbreak.The statement, which was issued on Thursday and reported by local media outlets on Friday, said the sample was from the Bulu health district in Sud-Ubangi.

It did not disclose other information about the source of the infection.The development makes Sud-Ubangi the seventh province affected by the outbreak — and the first in western Congo — a worrisome spread west from what was previously concentrated in the country’s east.A case was detected in Kinshasa in May in a person who had traveled from eastern Congo, but the Congolese capital was not classified as an affected province.As of Wednesday, 6,942 cases and 3,349 deaths have been reported, according to the latest government figures.The World Health Organization has said the outbreak remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.In recent weeks, new cases and deaths have declined in Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter, but risen sharply in neighboring North Kivu and Haut-Uele.The outbreak is spreading under extremely difficult conditions, fueled by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike and intense population movements.

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