Ebola Cases Surpass 7,000 in Democratic Republic of Congo

By Al Mayadeen English

12 Sep 2026 15:23

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 7,000 cases, with nearly 3,400 deaths as the disease spreads to a seventh province.

More than 7,000 Ebola cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo's worst outbreak of the disease, according to figures from Congolese authorities.

The DRC officially detected the latest outbreak in mid-May after it is thought to have spread undetected for weeks. Nearly 3,400 people have been killed in the country's 17th epidemic of the highly infectious virus.

The outbreak began in the northeastern Ituri province before spreading to conflict-affected, remote eastern and northern regions where armed groups have operated for decades, the presence of the state is weak and health infrastructure is largely lacking.

Ebola outbreaks reaches seventh province

Earlier this week, the disease was confirmed to have spread to a seventh province, South-Ubangi, which borders the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville.

According to the latest figures from Congolese authorities, 7,022 cases have been recorded since the beginning of the epidemic, of whom 3,398 have died and 1,671 people have recovered.

Most of the recorded cases are in Ituri, where Ebola has been detected in schools in the days after the post-summer return to classes, causing alarm among parents and health workers.

Parents severely alarmed despite health measures in place

"We are very worried because we don't know which child comes from which family or what the health status of the members of that family is," Angele Magani, mother of a schoolboy in Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital, told AFP.

"We are so scared, even though the school authorities reassure us about the health measures that have been put in place," she added.

Bunia school official Roger Mungimbo told AFP that "there is a mandatory hand-washing system with soap, and we have also done everything possible to have a maximum of 30 pupils per classroom."

"We regularly make the children aware that they must not touch each other, must not greet each other and must wash their hands regularly," he added.

Ebola strain first discovered in 2007 behind outbreak

Ebola, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the last 50 years, is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure.

The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment currently. Several treatments and vaccines are being tested.

The Bundibugyo strain, one of six known Ebola virus species, was first identified in Uganda in 2007 and has since caused two prior outbreaks with case fatality rates between 25% and 50%. The two licensed Ebola vaccines, Ervebo and Zabdeno/Mvabea, target the Zaire species exclusively and do not provide automatic protection against Bundibugyo due to differences in genetic material and surface proteins.

The World Health Organization has prioritized three experimental treatments for clinical trials against the Bundibugyo strain, alongside two vaccine candidates: an rVSV-based candidate that may take six to nine months before trial doses are ready, and a ChAdOx1-based candidate from Oxford University and the Serum Institute of India that could be available for human testing within two to three months.