The outbreak, announced May 15 in Bunia, Congo, stems from the rare Bundibugyo virus strain, which has no known treatment or vaccine. Health officials say the disease has spread across 63 health zones in seven of Congo's 26 provinces, and the country is running out of health workers to contain it.
The fatality rate has climbed past 48%, and officials point to a troubling pattern: a high number of deaths are happening in communities rather than in medical care, according to the health ministry's data. That detail matters because it suggests many sick people aren't reaching treatment centers before dying, which makes tracking the outbreak's true spread even harder and complicates efforts to isolate cases and slow transmission.
With no vaccine or approved treatment for this particular strain, health workers are relying on containment measures alone, even as staffing shortages stretch the response thin across a wide swath of the country.
Nearly half the people confirmed infected with this strain of Ebola have died from it.