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Ebola Cases in DRC Top 2,000 as Response Struggles to Keep Pace

WHO says the true toll may be two to four times higher, raising the risk of wider spread unless funding and frontline capacity are rapidly increased.

Health workers interact at the Evangelical Medical Center, in Bunia, eastern Congo, Friday, July 3, 2026, where Ebola clinical trials are scheduled to take place. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
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Health workers walk at the Evangelical Medical Center, in Bunia, eastern Congo, Friday, July 3, 2026, where Ebola clinical trials are scheduled to take place. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
Teams from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies prepare for burial at Mbiyo cemetery the body of a fourth orphan who died from Ebola virus disease at an orphanage in Bunia, Ituri Province, June 19, 2026. A virus but no vaccine, a territory prey to armed groups and public distrust: Ebola resurfaced in mid-May at the borders of the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. Since then, health authorities have been engaged in a race to catch up with the epidemic. On May 15, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared the 17th Ebola outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, in the vast Central African country. The day before, tests carried out in a laboratory in the capital, Kinshasa, had confirmed the presence of the virus. The epicenter of the crisis is in Ituri, a troubled province in northeastern Congo marked by high population mobility linked to mining activity. Already 246 suspected cases, including 80 deaths, had been reported at that point. (Photo by Jospin Mwisha / AFP)

Overview

  • Government data released Wednesday show 2,011 confirmed Ebola cases and 754 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with hundreds of patients still in isolation and dozens recovering.
  • WHO modelling warns the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official counts and reports about 80% of new infections come from unknown chains of transmission.
  • The Bundibugyo strain has spread from Ituri into five provinces including newly affected Tshopo and Haut-Uele, and cases have crossed into neighbouring Uganda; clinical trials of experimental treatments have begun but no approved vaccine or strain-specific therapy exists.
  • Health services are under pressure after at least 112 health workers were infected and 35 died, and unpaid wages have triggered strikes that have disrupted treatment centres, safe burials and contact tracing.
  • International agencies and charities including WHO, MSF and Africa CDC urge urgent scale-up of beds, labs and funding while warning export and evacuation cases — including a U.S. patient treated in Frankfurt — increase operational and cross-border risks.