United Nations: Ebola spreading at an accelerating pace in Congo, killing more than 2,500

The UN’s lead Ebola coordinator, Julian Harnes, warned on Friday that the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is “spreading at an accelerating pace.”

Speaking from Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Harnes said, “Ebola is spreading rapidly, having claimed the lives of 2,500 people over the past three months, half of them in the last 20 days.”

He noted that “the virus is spreading widely, now covering an area larger than that of France,” adding, “Its spread is outpacing our efforts to contain it; it is intensifying and expanding faster than the response efforts across the region.”

The seventeenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared on May 15, but the disease is believed to have begun spreading weeks earlier.

The epidemic has affected areas in the country’s north and east, where state presence is weak, health infrastructure is virtually nonexistent, and numerous armed groups have been active for decades.