Overview
- The World Health Organization says the outbreak has exceeded 2,000 confirmed cases with roughly 750–796 confirmed deaths and is spreading faster than any previous Ebola event.
- WHO cautions official counts may understate the scale by two to four times and reports that more than 80% of new cases are found outside known contact lists, signalling many missed transmission chains.
- The epidemic is driven by the uncommon Bundibugyo species, for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment, so researchers have begun randomized trials testing remdesivir and the experimental MBP134.
- Response efforts have expanded labs and diagnostics but have been repeatedly disrupted by violence, attacks on treatment sites such as Nyakunde, and strikes by unpaid health workers that forced closures and evacuations.
- Neighbouring Uganda is preparing to start a 42-day countdown to be declared Ebola-free after discharging its last patient, while in eastern DRC many deaths are occurring in the community among people who never received care, worsening the human toll and hampering containment.