Congo’s Ebola Outbreak Now 2nd Largest in History, WHO Says

Health workers walk with a boy suspected as having the Ebola virus at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni, Eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP

JOHANNESBURG—Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the second largest in history, behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago, the World Health Organization said on Nov. 29.

WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Peter Salama, called it a “sad toll” as Congo’s health ministry announced the number of cases has reached 426. That includes 379 confirmed cases and 47 probable ones. So far this outbreak, declared on Aug. 1, has 198 confirmed deaths, with another 47 probable ones, Congo’s health ministry said.