Overview
- Health authorities report 1,003 confirmed cases and 254 deaths as the outbreak expands in Ituri province and nearby areas.
- The outbreak, declared on May 15, has more than 35,000 close contacts under monitoring or yet to be traced and contact-tracing coverage remains around 55 percent.
- Response teams are using isolation and ring-vaccination tactics but face big limits because the circulating Bundibugyo ebolavirus has no established vaccine or specific treatment.
- Security problems and mass displacement in eastern DRC, including attacks by armed groups that cut access to villages, are hampering surveillance and driving people into overcrowded camps where transmission risk is higher.
- The World Health Organization has called the event a public-health emergency and UN agencies warn roughly 2 million displaced people live in zones at risk, raising concerns the outbreak could persist for months and spread regionally.