UN warns Ebola may not have peaked in DR Congo, despite falling cases

Congolese medical workers carry children tested and cleared off from Ebola from Saint Nicholas orphanage (Photo: Reuters) The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is showing early signs of slowing, but UN officials have warned that it is too soon to conclude that the epidemic has passed its peak, with transmission continuing to rise in some areas."It's too early to confidently say we have passed a peak", said World Health Organization's Olivier le Polain, when asked whether the epidemic has reached a turning point.According to the latest Congolese health ministry data cited by The Guardian, more than 7,200 confirmed cases and over 3,475 deaths had been recorded as of Monday.Congolese health minister Samuel Roger Kamba said the rate of transmission of the Bundibugyo variant had declined, with daily infections falling from around 120 at the height of the outbreak to about 80.“At one point, we were recording about 120 cases per day; today, we’re seeing about 80 per day. So the number of new cases is decreasing every day", he said.However, UN officials cautioned that the decline is not uniform across the affected region."It remains a deadly and a massive ⁠epidemic. Th...