DR Congo Ebola outbreak reaches 2,011 deaths and 4,381 confirmed cases

The previous deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo killed nearly 2,300 of the 3,500 patients recorded between 2018 and 2020.

Sania Nishtar heads Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which promotes access to vaccines in lower-income countries. She considers the current outbreak the largest in DR Congo’s history.

She believes it could become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded worldwide.

Many patients remain outside the health system

Speaking in Bunia on Monday, WHO Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi said health teams were seeing only 30% of those affected.

He added that 70% of those affected were dying at home. Meanwhile, 704 patients were being treated in isolation units, according to Die Zeit and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The response faces multiple obstacles

Insecurity linked to armed groups and public mistrust are complicating the response. A weak state presence and inadequate health infrastructure add to the difficulties.

Congolese virologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, described the response on Tuesday as slow and ineffective. He attributed this to shortcomings in national coordination and organisation.

Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said on Tuesday that the outbreak had not yet reached its peak.

He believes its spread could be brought under control and then begin to decline within the following three months.

Transmission and the outbreak’s origin

Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes haemorrhagic fever.

A study published in Nature Medicine on Monday indicates that the current outbreak may have resulted from animal-to-human transmission.

This possibility contrasts with the hypothesis that previously identified variants had re-emerged.

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

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6 August 2026 at 14:56

11 August 2026 at 16:15