More than 2,000 people have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what is now the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease on record. The death toll has risen almost three times faster than during the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the deadliest on record. The outbreak is already the second-largest in history, behind the 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa, which recorded more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths. The current outbreak has a death rate of 45.9% among confirmed cases, higher than the 39.6% recorded during the 2014-16 outbreak. Although the strain behind the 2014-16 outbreak is considered the deadliest, government figures show the current outbreak has killed a higher proportion of those infected.