Health & Public Health
DR Congo Ebola deaths top 2,100 as UNICEF warns
DR Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,128 people among 4,566 confirmed cases, authorities say, and UNICEF has warned that the disease risks deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis in the country's east.
Africa CDC said Thursday that the outbreak had reached Bas-Uele, the sixth province affected, after a person died there following travel from Haut-Uele. Cases had already been recorded in Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo.
UNICEF's east Africa director, Gilles Fagninou, said after visiting Ituri that the response to Ebola and other health problems needed to be stepped up. He said cholera, polio and access to maternity wards were also critical, and that maternity ward births had fallen from about 130 a month before the epidemic to about 30.
Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya warned that the virus was spreading at an unprecedented rate. The World Health Organization said Wednesday that it hoped to reverse the spread within three months. Mercy Corps warned about the risk of spread to South Sudan and said the response in DR Congo was being hampered by stretched health services, inadequate water and sanitation, fragile trust and insecurity.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, was declared on May 15 and began in Ituri, near Uganda and South Sudan. It is DR Congo's 17th Ebola outbreak. The country's previous deadliest outbreak, from 2018 to 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people out of 3,500 recorded cases. Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes haemorrhagic fever.
Update
UNICEF's east Africa director warned that the Ebola outbreak risks worsening eastern DR Congo's humanitarian situation.
Gilles Fagninou said Ebola, cholera, polio and access to maternity wards all needed attention in eastern DR Congo.
Fagninou said maternity ward births had fallen from about 130 a month before the epidemic to about 30.
The item identifies the outbreak as the Bundibugyo strain, for which it says there is no vaccine.
Source note: AFP news report published on 10 July 2026 at 17:38:15 UTC.
Update
Africa CDC said the outbreak is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
Africa CDC said that three months after declaration, DR Congo had recorded seven times more cases and five times more deaths than west Africa recorded in the first three months of the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Mercy Corps said confirmed cases were 35 kilometres from the South Sudan border along high-risk travel corridors.
Mercy Corps said the response was hampered by stretched health services, insufficient clean water and safe toilets, fragile trust and insecurity.
Source note: AFP news report published on 13 August 2026 at 16:33:28 UTC.
Update
Authorities now put the outbreak at more than 2,128 deaths and 4,566 confirmed cases.
Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya said a person died in Bas-Uele after travelling from neighbouring Haut-Uele.
Mercy Corps warned about the risk of spread to South Sudan.
Source note: AFP news report published on 13 August 2026 at 15:35:34 UTC.
Update
Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya said a person died of Ebola in Bas-Uele province.
Kaseya said the person had travelled from neighbouring Haut-Uele province, where Ebola cases had already been reported.
Bas-Uele had previously been spared, making it the sixth province affected.
Source note: AFP news report published on 13 August 2026 at 15:10:23 UTC.
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Africa CDC said DR Congo's Ebola outbreak has spread to a sixth province.
Source note: AFP news report published on 13 August 2026 at 14:59:15 UTC.
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The WHO gave updated figures of 4,499 confirmed cases and 2,061 deaths.
The WHO said it expects a turnaround within three months if response measures are implemented at the same time across five transmission zones.
The WHO warned that bringing transmission under control would not mean the outbreak was over.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said improving contact tracing is the priority operational challenge, with a target of raising follow-up rates to 95 percent from about 80 percent.
The WHO said it is tripling treatment capacity, aiming for 3,000 beds within 12 weeks.
Source note: AFP news report published on 12 August 2026 at 19:01:15 UTC.
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Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said the outbreak had not yet reached its peak and that authorities expected to bring the spread under control and see it decline within three months.
WHO regional director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi said responders were seeing only 30 percent of infected people and that 70 percent were dying at home.
Congolese virologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe told Le Monde the response had been slow and ineffective because of problems in national coordination.
The outbreak began in Ituri province and spread to other provinces, notably North Kivu.
Insecurity linked to armed groups and mistrust among local people have hampered the outbreak response.
Source note: AFP news report published on 11 August 2026 at 12:57:49 UTC.
Update
Congolese health authorities estimate the current outbreak's case fatality rate at 45.9 percent.
Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar has said the outbreak is already considered the largest in DR Congo's history and could become the largest Ebola outbreak ever.
Two potential Bundibugyo vaccines are in early human clinical trials, and a third is being prepared to reach that stage.
Source note: AFP news report published on 11 August 2026 at 10:28:40 UTC.
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Congolese officials said the outbreak has killed 2,011 people.
Congolese officials said there have been 4,381 confirmed cases.
AFP reported that the latest toll puts the outbreak close behind DR Congo's 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, when nearly 2,300 people died.
Source note: AFP news report published on 11 August 2026 at 09:54:26 UTC.
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Health authorities said the death toll in the DR Congo Ebola outbreak has risen to more than 2,000.
Source note: AFP news report published on 11 August 2026 at 09:33:55 UTC.
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A WHO spokesman said the proposed study would be a ring trial in the DRC involving contacts around known cases.
WHO experts reviewed animal-study data, including a non-human primate study in which three of four Ervebo-vaccinated animals survived Bundibugyo exposure compared with one of four controls.
The experts also reviewed an unpublished ferret study in which a research-grade version of Ervebo gave 100-percent protection against Bundibugyo while control animals died within 10 days.
The Gavi vaccine alliance maintains a stockpile of 500,000 Ervebo doses and said doses would be made available for the trials, with some already in the DRC.
Gavi said around 55,000 frontline workers in Ituri and North Kivu have received Ervebo through previous preventive vaccination campaigns.
Around 87 percent of cases in the DRC outbreak are in Ituri province and 11 percent are in North Kivu.
Source note: AFP news report published on 7 August 2026 at 16:07:18 UTC.
Uncertainty notes
The supplied material does not establish how current the UNICEF operational observations are relative to the later outbreak figures in the published candidate.
Source
AFP news report published on .