WHO puts Ebola outbreak death rate at ‘huge’ 30-50% as chief arrives in DRC

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls for ceasefire among armed groups to help avoid deaths from preventable disease The death rate of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is between 30% and 50%, the World Health Organization has said, as its head arrived in the country to support efforts to contain the disease. Anaïs Legand, from the WHO’s high threat pathogens team, said the revised death rate estimate is based on confirmed cases. “It’s huge. It means that up to five out of 10 people are likely to die,” Legand told reporters in Geneva. She also said that a patient had recovered from Ebola and was discharged from a health centre in the DRC on 27 May after two negative tests, the first recovery to have been confirmed in the outbreak. The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on 15 May, among more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organisation’s director general, arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday and was due to travel to the centre of the outbreak, in the north-east Ituri province, on Friday, but the trip has been pushed back by a day. “That thing can