5 challenges Congo faces in containing its fast-moving Ebola outbreak
[September 04, 2026]
By CHINEDU ASADU
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in eastern Congo are shifting to a
village-centered approach to fight the Ebola outbreak, Africa’s top
public health agency said Thursday, as the virus continues to spread
faster than efforts to track and contain it.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak
has likely not yet peaked. Since it was declared in mid-May, it has
spread from three health zones to 60, with 6,250 cases, including 3,039
deaths, government data showed, mostly fueled by insecurity,
displacement and intense population movements.
Compared with the outbreak of 2014 to 2016 across West Africa — the
deadliest Ebola outbreak on record with more than 11,000 deaths — the
current outbreak has recorded six times as many confirmed cases and five
times as many deaths, the Africa CDC said.
Here are five areas where Congo's response to the outbreak is still
falling short, according to a report this week from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention:
Limited community-based surveillance systems
One major gap in the response is limited community-based surveillance to
quickly investigate alerts to be able to detect, track and slow the
spread of the virus, the U.S. health agency said.
Delays in detection, reluctance to report cases and inadequate community
engagement are contributing to preventable deaths. At least 63% of
deaths recorded in the past week occurred outside Ebola treatment
centers, Africa CDC data showed.
Authorities are now using a “village-centered approach,” working with
community leaders to help build trust and improve collaboration with
residents, said Yap Boum, head of emergency preparedness and response at
Africa CDC.
Ituri province, where the outbreak is concentrated, is also at the
center of the rebel conflict in eastern Congo, complicating efforts to
gain trust from residents. “Building that trust in the middle of an
outbreak is quite complex," Boum said.
Contact-tracing needs to improve
Quickly identifying and tracing the contacts of those who had come in
contact with Ebola patients remains challenging across the six provinces
affected.
Although 81% of contacts have been followed up with by surveillance
teams, that figure does not reflect the full reality as it only refers
to the listed contacts and doesn’t include those who have yet to be
traced.
Africa CDC estimates that cases confirmed in the last three weeks should
have generated 97,600 contacts, based on an average of 60 contacts per
confirmed case. Only 19% of those total expected contacts have been
traced.
More treatment and isolation capacity is needed
Health data shows that treatment centers had expanded capacity to more
than 1,300 beds in late August while their occupancy rate is currently
at 67% with 869 patients.
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A health worker pauses after disinfecting a treatment center for
Ebola patients, in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Monday,
Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)
 However, experts have called for
more treatment and isolation centers and beds in affected health
zones to prepare for cases that have yet to be detected.
Many affected health zones are in areas where cases go undetected or
unreported for several reasons, including distrust in health
authorities.
Some health zones are also not accessible to surveillance teams or
health workers trying to treat patients, said Boum.
Laboratory testing capacity remains limited
Experts also say that laboratory testing capacity needs to be
expanded in order to promptly identify cases and treat patients.
The World Health Organization said last month that several treatment
and transit centres in Ituri, the outbreak's epicenter, were
“saturated” while North Kivu, the second-most affected province,
lacked sufficient options to refer patients to specialized
facilities.
Health workers at existing treatment centers are also exhausted,
said Jeannot Krikeija, who works at an Ebola treatment center in
Bunia, Ituri’s capital. “Ebola is tiring us all the more because we
don’t know when this scourge will end. This ordeal is unbearable for
me,” Krikeija said.
Gaps remain in how burials are carried out in affected health
zones
Authorities have deployed safe and dignified burial teams for the
more than 3,000 people who have died from Ebola, but gaps remain in
how the burials are carried out, according to the U.S. health
agency.
Ebola can spread between people through direct contact with the
blood or other bodily fluids of someone who is sick with or has died
from Ebola, and experts have warned that bodies of victims still
carry large amounts of active virus.
In Ituri and other affected areas, burial teams have been attacked
on multiple occasions, often by families seeking to protect loved
ones who died of Ebola. It’s also common to see people surrounding
graves of Ebola victims during burials, sometimes within a few
meters away from the coffins.
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AP writer Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo and Mike Stobbe in
New York contributed to this report.
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