This archive report was first published on 5 July 2019.
As of Thursday, July 4, 2019, the Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo had claimed 1,606 lives, with a total of 2,382 cases reported, according to the health ministry.
A new fatality was reported on Friday, July 5, 2019, in Ariwara, Ituri province, near the border with Uganda. The victim was a mother from North Kivu province whose five children had contracted Ebola, with two of them already deceased.
The mother had fled to Ituri to evade Ebola response teams, the ministry said. Ariwara lies approximately 10 kilometers from Uganda and 60 kilometers from South Sudan.
So far, 177 people who had contact with the family have been identified in Ariwara, with 40 already vaccinated, the ministry reported.
The current Ebola outbreak is the worst on record, surpassing the 2014-2016 outbreak in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, which claimed over 11,300 lives.
Separately, the UN warned that the Ebola risk in Ituri is heightened by violence, which has forced people to flee their homes and gather in areas with poor hygiene, making them vulnerable to disease spread.
