DRC Ebola outbreak deadliest ever with one death every 30 minutes

The Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo is the deadliest ever, new data shows, with one person dying from the virus every thirty minutes. 

Government figures released on Monday show 2,325 deaths from almost 5,000 confirmed cases. 

The death toll exceeds that of a 2018 to 2020 outbreak in North Kivu that killed close to 2,300 people out of more than 3,300 confirmed cases. 

Despite ongoing efforts to trace people potentially exposed to Ebola, health workers are failing to keep pace with the virus. 

Up to 70 percent of new cases are being detected among people not already being monitored as contacts. 

The gap means those patients may have already exposed others to the disease. 

The race to contain the spread of the virus is hampered by fighting in Ituri province, at the epicentre of the outbreak.

Frequent population movements and hard to reach areas make some communities inaccessible to surveillance teams. 

On Friday the United Nations announced an additional $30 million in emergency funding to help tackle the outbreak.