The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 8,000 for the first time, and according to the latest statistics from the country’s health authority, 8,067 infections and 3,901 deaths have been recorded so far.

According to a Reuters news agency report published on Monday, September 28 (Mizan 6), these figures show that the current Ebola outbreak in Congo has become the largest and deadliest outbreak of the disease in the country’s history.

This outbreak is caused by the “Bundibugyo” virus, one of the Ebola virus species that can cause severe and deadly illness.

The World Health Organization had previously said that the current outbreak is spreading rapidly and that continuous transmission of the virus continues in various regions of Congo.

The current outbreak has now surpassed the record of the Ebola epidemic in Congo between 2018 and 2020.

However, according to the Reuters report, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 still remains the deadliest recorded outbreak of the disease in the world; in that epidemic, more than 28,600 people were infected and more than 11,000 died in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Ebola is a severe and sometimes deadly viral disease that belongs to the “Orthoebolavirus” family.

The World Health Organization says that the mortality rate in different outbreaks of this disease has varied and has been reported at an average of about 50 percent.