The World Health Organization has confirmed that the death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda has surpassed 1,000, according to africanews.com.

In the DRC, 2,473 cases of the deadly virus have been recorded, including 999 deaths. Across the border in Uganda, 20 cases and two deaths have been registered. Kinshasa’s health ministry reports that at least 737 patients are currently in isolation and receiving hospital care.

The outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus strain, was declared on 15 May in Ituri Province in eastern DRC. It has since spread to four other regions in the country’s east. Several cases later emerged in Uganda, mostly linked to Congolese citizens who had crossed the border. Kampala says it has gone three weeks without registering any new cases.

Unlike the more common Zaire strain, the Bundibugyo virus currently has no approved vaccine or specific treatment. It spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids.

By the time the WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May, the virus had already been spreading undetected for weeks. Last week, the WHO warned that Ebola had over the past month ‘expanded faster than any previous outbreak’.

This includes the 2013-2016 outbreak, considered the worst on record, which caused over 11,000 deaths out of at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

The WHO’s incident manager for Bundibugyo virus in DRC, Thierno Balde, said earlier this week that despite a ramping up of the response, ‘the outbreak remains ahead of us’.

However, the WHO has reported ‘encouraging progress’, with trials for two potential treatments, a vaccine and a post-exposure prophylaxis underway on the ground.