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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Denis Campbell and Rachel Savage

What is Ebola and why is the outbreak in DRC causing so much concern?

A doctor in a hazmat suit holds the hand of a patient inside a clear plastic isolation tent
A doctor tends to an Ebola patient at the Rwampara treatment centre in Ituri province. Photograph: Benediction Murhabazi/AFP/Getty Images

Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are losing their battle to contain the country’s deadliest Ebola outbreak.

DRC’s health ministry declared an outbreak in Ituri province on 15 May, though sequencing shows it had begun in February. It has since spread to five other provinces and is on track to overtake the 2014-16 west Africa outbreak as the largest in history.

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