Ebola outbreak with no vaccine or treatment spreading too fast to contain, doctors warn

Doctors have warned that the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history is spreading too fast to contain.

As of Wednesday (22 July), more than 1,000 people have died in the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are no specific treatments or vaccines for the Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak.

Cases have been confirmed in five provinces, but the outbreak is mostly concentrated in remote Ituri province.

Officials have warned that 80 per cent of new cases have emerged outside known chains of transmission, a sign that the outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can track.

The current outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any outbreak on record, including the 2013-2016 West Africa outbreak that caused more than 11,000 deaths.