Began

Earlier cases of the disease were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid, WHO said.

The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record started in February, months before it was officially declared in mid-May, said the World Health Organization (WHO) as responders in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) battle the surge in cases.

Mohamed Janabi, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, told a news conference on Monday that sequencing indicated the outbreak’s start, with some cases early on wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid.

“So we are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi said.

Confirmed cases of Ebola in the DRC have reached 4,200, including at least 1,900 deaths, according to latest government figures.

The Ebola outbreak declared on May 15 is unlike most previous ones because the rare Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccines or treatments. Early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola, contributing to delays.

The outbreak is unfolding in challenging conditions, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger among long-traumatised communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

Health teams travel on remote, unpaved roads and have reported shortages of protective gear, while the vast population of displaced people struggles to find reliable water sources for washing hands hygienically.

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths in at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted via contact with bodily fluids, such as blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials, such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Cases doubling in some regions

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to fight it. New cases are doubling in some hotspots, Tedros said on X after meeting with officials in the capital, Kinshasa.

Access to healthcare in the region had already been challenged by years of rebel conflict in one of the DRC’s most remote and vulnerable areas.

On Friday, the WHO recommended the start of full-scale human trials for the Ervebo vaccine, the only licensed Ebola vaccine. While Ervebo has proven to be safe and effective against the more common Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, WHO experts said early data showed it may also give some protection against the rare Bundibugyo strain.

A specific Bundibugyo vaccine is the preferred option for fighting the current outbreak, according to experts from the United Nations’ health agency. Two potential Bundibugyo vaccines are in the early stages of clinical trials on people, while a third is being worked on to get it to that stage.

Several previous Ebola outbreaks have also been declared weeks or months late, including the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak. That was declared in March 2014, although the first human case was later found to have occurred in December 2013.

After Connor Cooper, 33, appeared on ITV’s Deal or No Deal, he said feeling like a ‘TV star’ lead him to become addicted to cocaine, with the contestant spending up to £600 a week on the substance

A former Deal or No Deal contestant has blamed becoming a “TV star” for him developing a £600-a-week cocaine habit. Connor Cooper, 33, claims to have come across a “huge pile” of the drug while partying near to the hotel he and the rest of the contestants of the ITV game show were staying in.

Connor explained that one night, he had been out drinking with the rest of the contestants, and after drinking shots and cocktails all night, decided to give the drug a go. But after taking it, he couldn’t sleep – having got back to his hotel room at 7am, he was picked up at 8am to film the show.

READ MORE: ‘I was on Stephen Mulhern’s Deal or No Deal and one moment made me feel physically sick’

He and some of the other contestants were exhausted, with Connor admitting he was “completely wired” during filming. But it didn’t put the dad-of-one off, with Connor saying he went on to become hooked, saying he was “living in the moment” and had a taste of “the showbiz life”.

Speaking to the Sun, Connor explained: “I was dreading that show going out. I was still completely wired when we filmed and we recorded three games that day.”

Contestants on Deal or No Deal can be living with each other for up to a month, as they return in their bid to win big on the game show. Connor said that this lead to him and the others drinking together, with the “party culture” sucking him in.

He said he would order it secretly to keep himself going, but then he wouldn’t sleep again and have to return to the studios to film the day after. Then they would drink again that evening and he would “do it all over again”, with each contestant allowed two free drinks per day.

But then when he started drinking he would continue out of his own money, adding: “I just thought I was a TV star and dived in with both feet. It was really stupid.”

Connor went on to win £13,500 on Deal or No Deal, and returned to Portsmouth where he worked as a tarmac layer. A month after returning, when Connor was still buying and using cocaine, he found out his long-term partner was pregnant with twins, something he describes as a “wake-up call”

He told her everything and with her support he managed to seek professional help to kick his dangerous and expensive habit. Connor said he didn’t seek help with ITV’s mental health services. The Mirror has contacted Banijay for comment.

In response to the paper, a Deal Or No Deal spokesperson said: “We have a zero-tolerance policy on drug use on all our productions. Contestants stay at the hotel for short periods of time whilst filming and are closely monitored by a specialist welfare team throughout. Having reviewed logs of activity and welfare assessments, we can find no record of any behaviour that would cause concern.”

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