KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — More than 5,000 cases of Ebola have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the African Union’s health agency said Wednesday, as the conflict-ridden country faces its worst outbreak in history.

Declared on 15 May, the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak is thought to have already been spreading for several weeks by that point.

It has hit regions in the north and east where the presence of the state is weak, health infrastructure is largely lacking and myriad armed groups have roamed for decades.

The current outbreak has caused 2,378 deaths out of 5,021 confirmed cases, according to the latest data published by Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.

A 2018 to 2020 outbreak in the DRC, previously considered the country’s deadliest, killed 2,299 people out of 3,381 confirmed cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures based on Congolese data.

On Tuesday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned “the epidemic is far from being under control.”

“The risk of further national and international spread remains high,” Tedros said.

Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo virus, the strain behind the current surge, but clinical trials are underway.

The response has faced criticism for its slowness and poor organization, and is also hampered by mistrust among swathes of the population.

“Difficulties persist, including refusals of testing and resistance in some communities, which hinders surveillance and control activities,” Africa CDC stated.

The WHO has said efforts to ramp up the response and reach communities where the virus was spreading were under way, while the European Union on Tuesday announced it was sending testing kits worth 2.5 million euros ($2.9 million).