Ebola deaths in Congo pass 500 and then reach 600

The death toll from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was reported to have exceeded 500. Days later it was reported at 600. The two figures were successive updates, not two different outbreaks.

The 600 figure was the later toll. It followed months of travel bans, vaccine talk, and an imported case in France. This week's news was the higher death count, not a claim that the epidemic had peaked.

A cyclosporiasis outbreak caused by cyclospora was reported in 18 states of the United States. Michigan reported around 992 cases and Ohio 177. The parasite outbreak was separate from Ebola and was a foodborne-style illness cluster, not a hemorrhagic-fever import.

Medecins Sans Frontieres deployed to Darfur amid cholera in West and North Kordofan. That deployment was a medical response inside Sudan's war. It did not change Congo's Ebola total.

Brazil's earlier pause of a dengue vaccine and Britain's meningitis program were previous weeks. This week the infectious-disease headlines were Congo's rising Ebola deaths and the American cyclospora counts. They should not be added together.

Five hundred and then 600 are the Ebola death figures published on successive days. Around 992 and 177 are the state counts named for cyclospora. Eighteen is the number of states in that outbreak report.