DR Congo Ebola outbreak becomes deadliest in country’s history

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed 2,325 people, surpassing the death toll from the 2018–2020 epidemic to become the deadliest in the country's history, according to government data released on Sunday.aljazeera+1

The DRC's National Public Health Institute reported that confirmed cases have risen to 4,945, including 101 new infections detected in the previous 24 hours. The outbreak, declared on May 15, reached 2,000 deaths in less than three months — a pace far exceeding the 2014–2016 West African epidemic, which took nearly five months to reach 1,000 fatalities.cnn+1

A Virus Outrunning the Response

"Ebola is winning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We cannot let the virus outrun our response," UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Friday, describing the epidemic as "the fastest growing on record." He warned that the outbreak is now killing one person every 30 minutes.thisisthecoast+1

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last Wednesday that at its current pace, the outbreak is on track to eclipse the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014–2016, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed over 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.news.cgtn+1

The case fatality ratio has climbed from approximately 20 percent in early June to 46 percent, meaning nearly one in two confirmed cases is now fatal. Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist deployed with Médecins Sans Frontières, said the rising death rate reflects failures in surveillance rather than a more lethal virus. "We're still seeing many cases detected very late, when treatment is less likely to succeed, with many identified only after they die in the community," he said.aljazeera+1

No Approved Vaccines or Treatments

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, for which no approved vaccines or treatments exist. It has spread across 55 health zones in six provinces — Ituri, North Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo, South Kivu, and Bas-Uele — with Ituri alone recording more than 3,400 cases.radioroyal+2

Weak health infrastructure, the region's remoteness, and ongoing armed conflict near the DRC's borders with South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda have hampered containment efforts. The UN has allocated an additional $30.5 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund and deployed further staff to the epicentre, but Fletcher called for a doubling of safe burial teams and a tripling of treatment capacity.aljazeera+1

A small number of experimental vaccines and therapies are under evaluation, including two Bundibugyo-specific vaccines that have entered Phase 1 safety trials in humans. The outbreak earlier spread to neighbouring Uganda, where authorities contained it to 20 cases and two deaths before declaring it over last month.cnn+1