Overview
- The Democratic Republic of Congo reported on Saturday that the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has reached 10,351 confirmed cases and 5,026 deaths, giving an official fatality rate of about 48.6 percent.
- The epidemic began in mid‑May and has spread across dozens of health zones concentrated in eastern provinces such as Ituri and North Kivu, producing many infections outside tracked contact chains.
- Response operations are repeatedly disrupted by attacks on staff and facilities, strikes by unpaid health workers, burned transit centres and large‑scale displacement that make contact tracing and testing inconsistent.
- Cross‑border risks remain: Uganda declared its outbreak over in late July, Kenya has recorded imported and local cases since early October, and experts warn that undetected transmission could seed cases in other countries.
- No vaccine or proven therapy is yet widely available for the Bundibugyo strain, and WHO and partners are preparing Phase 2/3 trials and targeted vaccinations that are awaiting regulatory and ethical clearance.