Official Number Of Ebola Cases Now Nearly At 7,800: Harrowing -- But Actual Total May Be Well Over 10,000 Already.

This bears all the earmarks of being worse than the 2013-2014 outbreak of over 14,000. In just this past week -- two days saw over 25 deaths. The current outbreak is still a very far distance from being. . . arrested.

Here's the latest hard news from CIDRAP -- three days ago now, while I was off-grid:

. . .The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to infect those in Ituri province at an alarming rate, according to a new report published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) yesterday. According to the report, the DRC has 7,773 confirmed cases, including 3,759 deaths, with 40 new confirmed cases and 27 deaths reported during a 48-hour period earlier this week.

“Ituri province remains the most affected, with 5,966 cases, including 2,737 deaths, reported from 28 of 36 health zones,” the ECDC wrote. “In total, 84.5% of identified case contacts are under follow-up in the affected provinces. . . .”

In addition, during the prior two weeks, another young medical doctor, treating the afflicted in situ in Ituri, DRC contracted the virus -- and has died from it. Discouraging, indeed.

नमस्ते