Between three and five out of every ten people infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are dying, the World Health Organization confirmed this week, placing the current outbreak among the deadliest in recent memory. Anaïs Legand, a specialist on the WHO's high-threat pathogens team, described the figures as alarming. "It's huge," she told reporters in Geneva. "It means that up to five out of 10 people are likely to die." The organisation has so far recorded ten confirmed and 223 suspected deaths since the outbreak was officially declared on 15 May, across more than a thousand confirmed and suspected cases — though officials caution the true toll is likely far higher, as the virus is believed to have been circulating undetected for some time.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved treatment currently exists, though WHO advisory groups have now recommended launching clinical trials of both vaccines and treatments. Jean Kaseya, head of the African Union's health agency, said a vaccine could be available before the end of the year. One patient has already been discharged after two negative tests — the first confirmed recovery in the outbreak — offering a rare note of cautious hope.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus flew into Kinshasa on Thursday and was preparing to visit the outbreak's epicentre in the north-eastern Ituri province. The region is deeply contested, with armed groups including the Rwanda-backed M23 controlling swathes of nearby territory. Tedros made a direct appeal to all warring factions: "Please declare a ceasefire. No cause, no conflict, no grievance is worth condemning innocent people to death from a preventable disease." More than 245,000 people have fled eastern DRC since January, further stretching humanitarian capacity.

The WHO urged neighbouring countries against closing their borders, warning that restrictions push crossings underground and impede disease surveillance. Uganda, which has reported one Ebola death and eight additional cases, nonetheless announced an immediate border closure with the DRC on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a Kenyan court temporarily blocked plans to establish a quarantine facility for US citizens on Kenyan soil, adding a diplomatic dimension to an already complex regional crisis. This is the DRC's seventeenth Ebola outbreak; the disease has claimed lives there since its first recorded appearance in 1976.