Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have passed 4,000, with 1,801 deaths recorded as of early August, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record. Africa CDC director Jean Kaseya said officials are investigating whether the Bundibugyo strain driving the outbreak may be mutating, given its unprecedented severity compared with past outbreaks of the same strain.
More than two-thirds of deaths are occurring outside treatment centers, and at one MSF-run facility 90% of patients were not on any official contact list, pointing to widespread untracked transmission. Officials said only about 10 contacts are being traced per patient when roughly 40 would be expected, prompting a shift to door-to-door
active case search
in affected communities.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.