The Democratic Republic of Congo has now reported more than 1,033 confirmed Ebola deaths 67 days after it was declared an outbreak.
This outbreak is killing more people at a greater rate compared to any outbreak on record, ABC News reported. The 2013-2016 outbreak, previously considered the worst on record, reached 1,000 deaths after eight months.
Officials believe the outbreak started months before it was discovered, but the exact timeline of the outbreak is still unclear.
Here are five more things to know.
1. As of July 21, there are 2,536 confirmed cases, 306 suspected cases and 738 people in isolation. The outbreak now has a death rate of 40.7%. To date, 377 people have recovered from the infection.
2. Fourteen asymptomatic American citizens are being quarantined at a New York military base for four days after a recent return from Congo, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters. The travelers returned via Canada and were not deemed to be at risk of transmitting the disease. There is no U.S. order to prevent citizens from returning via land, only a “do-not-board” order that requires citizens in Congo to quarantine for at least 21 days in a third country before they can board a commercial flight. This comes a week after seven American aid workers were sent to Kenya to quarantine.
3. On July 15, gunfire between armed groups near an Ebola treatment center in Nyankunde Congo, prompted the World Health Organization, Africa CDC and Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian aid group, to evacuate medical personnel from the city. Patients in the treatment center are being cared for by local staff, and it’s unclear if humanitarian aid workers will return.
“All Ebola response activities [in the area] have been brought to a standstill,” Desire Duabo, MD, head of the Nyankunde health zone, told news outlet Mongabay. “Contact tracing for confirmed cases has stopped, alerts can no longer be investigated, and we are no longer able to conduct safe and dignified burials. The situation needs to change.”
4. Medical facilities and healthcare workers have faced dozens of attacks since the outbreak began, primarily due to fear and mistrust within the community. Many of the attacks have been perpetrated by angry mobs, Pierre Akilimali, MD, incident manager for the Ebola response at the National Public Health Institute of the DRC, said at a press briefing in Bunia, Congo, on July 18.
5. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya said he has written to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking him to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions on Uganda as “there is no reason for the U.S. to continue with this travel restriction,” U.S. News and World Report reported. The country has reported no new infections in about a month and discharged its last Ebola patient on July 16. The country is now waiting on its 42-day countdown, after which it can be declared free of the virus, according to World Health Organization guidelines.
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