Ebola outbreak in Congo tops 4,000 cases in world's second-largest epidemic

The Democratic Republic of Congo's current Ebola outbreak has surpassed 4,000 confirmed cases, making it the world's second-largest epidemic. Government data indicates 4,053 infections and 1,850 deaths across five provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, and Tshopo. Experts suggest the outbreak, declared on May 15, began much earlier, possibly in January, with a report in the journal Science identifying over 500 suspected cases before the official declaration. Factors like delayed detection, overwhelmed surveillance, military conflict, and insufficient vaccines and treatments have hindered containment efforts, allowing the disease to spread rapidly. Only the 2014-16 West African outbreak, with over 28,000 cases, has been larger.