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Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo Becomes Deadliest in National History

morning · · thread: Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo Claims Over 1500 Lives

12 sources across 9 countries · 1 of them is linked to a state

Who reported this

  • The Guardian United Kingdom · Centre-left · Scott Trust Limited
  • BBC News United Kingdom · Centre · Public · Licence fee, royal charter
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation
  • G1 Brazil · Centre-left · Grupo Globo (Marinho family)
  • CNN Brasil Brazil · Centre · Rubens Menin (MRV)
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Germany · Centre-right · FAZIT-Stiftung (foundation)
  • The Japan Times Japan · Centre · News2u Holdings
  • Al Jazeera Qatar · Centre-left · State-affiliated · Qatari government funded
  • Daily Maverick South Africa · Centre-left · Reader-funded
  • The Korea Herald South Korea · Centre-right · Herald Corporation (Yeongpoong Group)
  • El Pais Spain · Centre-left · Grupo PRISA
  • CNN United States · Centre-left · Warner Bros. Discovery

What the colours mean

  • Left
  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.

Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.

The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 2,325 people, surpassing the death toll of the 2018 to 2020 outbreak to become the deadliest in the country's history. According to the DRC's National Public Health Institute, there are now 4,945 confirmed cases, including 101 new cases detected in the 24 hours prior to the latest report. This current outbreak is the 17th to emerge in the DRC and is the fastest growing on record. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the epidemic is killing someone every 30 minutes.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of the Ebola virus, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments. While a small number of experimental therapies are being evaluated, the World Health Organization is sponsoring clinical trials to see if existing antiviral therapies can improve survival rates. Additionally, a team from the University of Oxford is developing a vaccine based on technology used for the AstraZeneca Covid 19 vaccine.

Government data shows that the case fatality ratio rose from approximately 20 percent in early June to 46 percent. Public health experts, including Thomas Parisch of Doctors Without Borders, state that this increase does not mean the virus has become more lethal. Instead, they attribute the trend to deficiencies in surveillance, late case detection, and poor access to medical care. Factors hindering the response include weak health infrastructure, community resistance, and regional instability.

In terms of global scale, this is the second largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, surpassed only by the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak. The current surge reached 2,000 deaths in less than three months, whereas the West Africa outbreak took nearly five months to reach 1,000 deaths. The virus previously spread to neighboring Uganda, where authorities reported 20 cases and two deaths before declaring the outbreak ended last month.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
These outlets emphasized the systemic failures of health infrastructure and the urgent need for global solidarity to prevent the virus from winning.
Centre
These outlets focused on the statistical milestones of the outbreak and the specific medical developments regarding new vaccines.
Centre-right
These outlets highlighted the rapid pace of the virus's spread and the specific data regarding the rise in the fatality rate.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.