Ebola kills 1,700 in eastern Congo as the fastest-growing outbreak
surges
[August 05, 2026]
By PROSPER HERI NGORORA, CONSTANT SAME BAGALWA and WILSON MCMAKIN
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Ebola has killed more than 1,700 people in eastern
Congo in what has become the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease,
according to data — spreading faster than health officials can track and
with patient zero still unidentified.
As of Tuesday, 3,802 cases had been recorded, with 1,707 deaths, the
latest government update showed.
It was not clear when the outbreak will reach its peak, Africa CDC
Director-General Jean Kaseya said Tuesday during his second visit to the
town of Bunia, located near the epicenter of the outbreak in Ituri
province.
Kaseya pointed out that some 60-70% of the new cases were recorded from
spreading within a community, not from contact tracing — a method that
traces those who have been in contact with a confirmed case.
“Contact tracing is not working,” said Kaseya, “we don’t like the
trajectory of this outbreak, and it’s already the second largest
outbreak (ever) in the world.”
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, was expected to arrive in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa,
later on Tuesday and would visit Bunia later this week.
The outbreak, declared on May 15, has been linked to the Bundibugyo
virus for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Delays in
contact tracing, difficulties accessing affected areas, mistrust from
communities, and violence by armed groups and some residents have
hampered the response, the Africa CDC has said.
Two clinical trials for post-exposure prophylaxis drugs are ongoing in
Ituri province as well as two separate vaccine trials in the United
Kingdom and Canada.
The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo’s remote Ituri
province, which accounts for nearly 90% of cases, but cases have also
been confirmed in five other provinces, including in one of the
country’s largest cities, Kisangani.
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Neighboring Uganda declared itself free of Ebola following the discharge
of the country’s last patient in mid-June.
A key challenge is that patient zero has yet to be identified in the
outbreak while displacement from armed conflict and illegal mining in
the region have made it difficult to trace thousands who have come in
contact with infected individuals.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it was monitoring over
17,000 potential contacts, with nearly 80% of them being seen daily.
Mohamed Janabi, WHO's regional director for Africa, told reporters on
Tuesday that the U.N. health agency is now testing over 2,000 samples a
day, up from 20 previously.
On Monday, healthcare workers in the hard-hit town of Mongbwalu issued
an ultimatum over unpaid wages saying that “if nothing is done within 24
hours, we will escalate our action.”
Previously, healthcare workers in Bunia went on strike over a lack of
pay and dangerous working conditions. The WHO says more than 100
healthcare workers have been infected since the beginning of the
outbreak.
The latest outbreak has killed people at a quicker rate than any
previous outbreak, including in 2014-2016 when 28,000 cases were
reported, of which over 11,000 people died. That outbreak took about
eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.
The response is also hampered by a funding gap, attacks on health
centers, an ongoing conflict in eastern Congo and mistrust among local
communities.
Enrollment in a highly anticipated study of two possible Ebola
treatments recently started in Ituri.
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