Congo’s Ebola outbreak reaches 3,200 confirmed cases and 1,405 deaths

There is no useful “normal annual” Ebola figure because cases occur in discrete outbreaks. In roughly ten weeks, this outbreak has nearly matched the 3,481 cases recorded during Congo’s entire 2018–20 epidemic; AP reports that it reached 1,000 deaths almost three times faster than the 2014–16 West Africa epidemic. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which no approved strain-specific vaccine or treatment exists.