DR Congo: Ebola is killing people before they ever reach a doctor

More than 1,900 people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ebola outbreak – and most of them never made it to a treatment centre . Between 60 and 70 per cent of deaths are happening in communities far from care, a gap that is now central to the World Health Organization's response. “The Bundibugyo virus continues to outpace us,” said Dr. Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa, speaking from Bunia, the epicentre of the outbreak in eastern DRC – referring to a particularly lethal Ebola strain for which there is still no approved vaccine. “ The Bundibugyo virus continues to outpace us ,” Dr. Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said at a press conference, referring to the particularly lethal species of Ebola for which no approved vaccine currently exists. Janabi recently spent three days in Bunia, capital of Ituri province – his fifth visit since the epidemic was declared there on 15 May.

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