Ebola Outbreak in Congo: Cases Surge as Health Authorities Race to Contain Rapid Spread

Last updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2026, based on the World Health Organization's regional update, using data through August 16, 2026.

Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have crossed 5,000 since the outbreak was first confirmed in May, making it the second-largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded and the fastest-spreading one on record. Health authorities in the DRC, alongside the World Health Organization (WHO) and international partners, are continuing to scale up their response as the outbreak, caused by the little-studied Bundibugyo species of the virus, keeps expanding across eastern DRC.

Latest Confirmed Case and Death Figures

According to the WHO Regional Office for Africa, a total of 5,021 confirmed cases and 2,378 related deaths had been reported as of data compiled through August 16, 2026. Of those currently affected, 751 patients are hospitalised in isolation. An earlier WHO situation report, dated August 12, put the case fatality ratio at 46.8 percent, a figure that reflects both the severity of this Ebola strain and the difficulty many patients face in reaching treatment in time. DRC health authorities have noted that case and death figures remain under continuous review and are subject to revision as verification work continues in affected areas.

Where the Outbreak Is Occurring and How It Has Spread

The outbreak was first confirmed by DRC's Ministry of Public Health on May 14 and 15, 2026, in the Ituri province health zone of Mongbwalu, in the country's east. Health officials believe the earliest infections may date back to January or February, tracing to a nurse who died at the Evangelical Medical Center in Bunia in late April, though gaps in surveillance mean this timeline is not fully confirmed. It is the 17th recorded Ebola outbreak in the DRC and began just five months after the previous one ended.

Since May, the outbreak has spread well beyond its original epicentre. As of the WHO's mid-August update, it had reached 54 health zones across six provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé, Tshopo and Bas-Uélé. Cases have also been confirmed in the city of Goma, and earlier suspected cases in Kinshasa were later ruled out after further testing. The outbreak crossed into neighbouring Uganda in May as well, though Uganda's Ministry of Health declared that outbreak over on July 28 after 20 confirmed cases and two deaths, with no new cases reported since June 21.

Why Authorities Are Struggling to Keep Pace

WHO officials have described the response as unfolding in an unusually difficult setting. Ituri province has a long history of ethnic conflict, and armed groups, including the ADF, CODECO, and the Rwanda-backed M23, compete for control of areas rich in gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum, which complicates safe access for health workers. The World Health Organization has cited a combination of a broader humanitarian crisis, remote and densely populated terrain, insecurity, and high levels of population and cross-border trade movement as factors slowing the response.

The virus itself has also posed a scientific complication. Because the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species rather than the more familiar Zaire ebolavirus, existing licensed vaccines and treatments, which were developed and approved for the Zaire strain, cannot be assumed to work the same way and have required fresh testing. The United Nations has reported that between 60 and 70 percent of deaths in this outbreak have occurred in communities rather than in treatment centres, underscoring how many patients are not reaching care in time. Local health officials have also raised concerns that the virus could be mutating, though this remains a concern under investigation rather than a confirmed finding.

Government, WHO and International Response

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 16, 2026, one day after DRC's government confirmed it. WHO has said it is scaling up support to the governments of the DRC and Uganda across surveillance, contact tracing, clinical care, supply delivery and cross-border preparedness, and has repeatedly emphasised that community engagement will be central to bringing the outbreak under control. A WHO Emergency Committee met again on August 18 to review the outbreak's trajectory.

As hospitals in Ituri's capital, Bunia, became overwhelmed early in the outbreak, DRC health authorities began setting up field hospitals from May 17. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has sent experts to support the response, and the US CDC has said it is responding to the outbreak as well, though it has confirmed no cases within the United States. Médecins Sans Frontières has deployed more than 1,400 staff, running treatment centres including its Elikya Ebola treatment centre in Bunia, alongside isolation units and supply operations. A new 100-bed treatment centre was also inaugurated in Bunia in early August.

Vaccines, Treatments, Medical Supplies and Healthcare Workers

There is currently no vaccine or treatment specifically approved for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, unlike the Zaire species, for which the Ervebo vaccine and several antibody treatments already exist. A study in macaques suggested Ervebo may offer some partial protection against Bundibugyo virus, but WHO has judged the evidence insufficient so far and has recommended against using it outside a carefully designed research setting.

Several efforts are now under way to close this gap. The WHO-sponsored PARTNERS trial, led by DRC's National Institute for Biomedical Research together with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium, the University of Oxford and Africa CDC, began enrolling patients in early July to test treatments including remdesivir and an antibody therapy known as MBP134, along with an oral medicine being studied as a preventive option for high-risk contacts. On the vaccine side, a Bundibugyo-specific candidate developed at Oxford entered its first human safety trial in the UK on July 24, and a second candidate from Moderna, backed by the vaccine research group CEPI, began a Phase 1 trial in Canada on August 3. A third candidate, from the non-profit IAVI, is in earlier development. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in mid-August that the outbreak was moving faster than any previous Ebola outbreak, and discussions were under way between WHO and DRC authorities to launch a larger Phase 3 trial that could test both Ervebo and Bundibugyo-specific vaccine candidates simultaneously.

How Ebola Spreads and Main Symptoms

Ebola virus disease spreads through direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids or contaminated materials of an infected person, including those who have died from the disease, which is why safe burial practices are a key part of outbreak control. It is not an airborne virus. Symptoms typically begin two to 21 days after exposure and include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, often followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and, in more severe cases, impaired kidney and liver function and internal or external bleeding. Early symptoms can resemble other common illnesses, such as malaria or typhoid, which is part of why early cases in this outbreak may have gone undetected.

Healthcare Access, Contact Tracing and Isolation Challenges

Reaching patients and their contacts has been especially difficult in the conflict-affected and geographically remote parts of eastern DRC where the outbreak has taken hold. Health officials have pointed to decentralised testing efforts as a way to speed up diagnosis in areas far from established laboratories, reducing the time patients spend waiting for results while potentially still infectious. Even so, the finding that a majority of deaths are occurring in communities rather than treatment centres suggests that many people affected are still not being identified or isolated early enough, whether due to distance from care, mistrust, insecurity, or a combination of these factors.

Risk of Further Transmission and Neighbouring Areas

The outbreak has already shown it can cross borders. Beyond the cases confirmed in Uganda, individual imported cases linked to this outbreak have been recorded further afield, including a US citizen working for a humanitarian organisation who tested positive and was medically evacuated to Germany, and a case reported by France's Ministry of Health in June. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has assessed the likelihood of infection for people in the European Union and European Economic Area as very low, while continuing to monitor the situation. The US CDC has similarly described the risk to the American public and to travellers as low, noting that its public health system is prepared to manage any imported case. US travel guidance covering the outbreak also extends to neighbouring South Sudan, reflecting ongoing attention to the wider border region even though no cases have been confirmed there.

What Authorities Are Advising the Public

WHO and DRC health officials have continued to stress that community engagement, rather than enforcement alone, is what ultimately brings an Ebola outbreak under control. Public health teams have been running awareness campaigns in affected areas, including an outreach caravan involving local motorcycle taxi operators in Beni, North Kivu, encouraging residents to follow preventive measures such as avoiding contact with the bodily fluids of sick or deceased individuals, seeking care promptly if symptoms appear, and cooperating with contact tracing and safe burial teams. Authorities have also asked residents in affected provinces to report suspected cases early rather than seeking care only once symptoms become severe, since earlier treatment is linked to better chances of survival.

What Happens Next

The response is expected to remain focused, in the near term, on two fronts: continuing to expand contact tracing, isolation and community engagement capacity across the growing number of affected health zones, and accelerating the clinical trials now under way for both treatments and vaccines specific to the Bundibugyo species. Talks between WHO and DRC authorities over a larger, multi-armed Phase 3 vaccine trial remain ongoing, and results from the smaller Phase 1 vaccine trials in the UK and Canada are expected over the coming months, though officials have cautioned that any resulting vaccine is unlikely to be available at scale in the very near term. Until then, the scale of the response will continue to depend on surveillance reach, security conditions in affected areas, and the pace at which new treatment and isolation capacity can be added in the hardest-hit provinces.