Overview
- This week Congo’s health ministry and the World Health Organization reported the outbreak has passed 10,000 confirmed cases with nearly 5,000 deaths.
- Surveillance gaps are large: roughly 70–80% of new infections are detected outside known contact networks and weekly confirmed cases have held at about 400–500.
- Attacks on responders and local hostility have worsened access to care, with a nurse killed in Bafwasende and other frontline workers threatened or driven from communities.
- Clinical vaccine trials under the TUMAINI consortium have begun to test Ervebo and Bundibugyo-specific candidates, but trial results and any widely deployable vaccine are expected only in several months.
- African governments and partners are scaling preparedness and border screening while humanitarian and health services in affected provinces suffer, disrupting maternal care, routine vaccination and other essential services.