Rabat – The Ebola outbreak tearing through the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed more than 1,000 people, making it the deadliest and fastest-moving epidemic of the virus ever recorded.
The DRC’s National Institute of Public Health confirmed 999 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the country’s health ministry. Meanwhile, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director-General Jean Kaseya put the confirmed toll at 1,031 deaths, speaking at a health summit in Ghana the same day. The World Health Organization has also recorded two deaths in neighboring Uganda linked to the outbreak.
As of Monday, the DRC’s health ministry had logged 2,473 confirmed cases, with at least 737 patients still in isolation or under hospital treatment.
The outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, was declared on May 15 after a cluster of deaths in the northeastern province of Ituri, where cases remain concentrated. It has since spread to several other Congolese provinces and crossed into Uganda. France recorded a case of a health worker who had been infected in Congo and later recovered.
What sets this outbreak apart is its speed. The 2013-2016 West Africa epidemic, the deadliest on record with more than 11,000 deaths from at least 28,000 cases, took roughly eight months to reach 1,000 deaths. This outbreak surpassed that toll in less than 10 weeks. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned last week that the outbreak had “expanded faster than any previous outbreak” of the virus.
Compounding the crisis, there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain, unlike the Zaire strain responsible for most past outbreaks, for which effective vaccines exist.
The University of Oxford’s Vaccine Group last week launched the first human clinical trial of a Bundibugyo vaccine candidate, a phase I trial assessing safety and immune response in 50 healthy adults in Oxford.
The response on the ground has also been hampered by internal strain. Front-line workers in Ituri, including surveillance teams, burial teams, and community outreach staff, went on strike multiple times in July over unpaid wages dating back to the outbreak’s declaration, with some protests in Bunia and Rwampara involving burning tires before police intervened.
Officials attributed some payment delays to the closure of Bunia airport, which disrupted the flow of response funding.
WHO has said that more than 100 healthcare workers have been infected since the outbreak began. Thierno Balde, WHO’s incident manager for Bundibugyo, said that despite plans to scale up the response, “the outbreak remains ahead of us and we are still in a phase of catching up.”
In a post on X, Kaseya said the situation was “escalating at an alarming pace” and warned that without immediate action, it could become “the worst outbreak the world has ever documented.”
He has also written to US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. requesting that Washington lift Ebola-related travel restrictions on Uganda, arguing the country has reported no new infections in roughly a month.
Uganda’s last known patient was discharged on July 16, starting a 42-day clock after which the country could be declared free of the virus under WHO guidelines. The United States is restricting entry for travelers recently in the DRC, as well as some who visited Uganda or South Sudan.
“Every delay costs lives,” said Trish Newport, MSF’s emergency program manager. “We are still chasing the outbreak instead of staying ahead of it.”
