World Health Body Puts Congo Ebola Death Rate as High as 50 Percent

The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations health agency, said the death rate of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was between 30 and 50 percent, as its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in the country, The Guardian reported. He called for a ceasefire among armed groups to help prevent deaths from preventable disease.

More than 100 metric tons of emergency humanitarian supplies are being airlifted into the country as the WHO, the United Nations children's agency and the European Union intensify efforts to contain an outbreak that has infected more than 120 people, Africanews reported. The Red Cross said community outreach is central to stopping the spread, as Uganda confirmed two new cases across the border.

The outbreak is the kind of low-probability, high-consequence event that markets tend to ignore until it spreads. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a major supplier of cobalt and copper, metals essential to batteries and electronics, and a widening health emergency in a conflict zone is a risk to those supply chains as much as a humanitarian crisis.