Ebola Strikes Congo Again

Ebola is not an unfamiliar enemy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country has faced numerous outbreaks since the virus was first identified in 1976, but none reached the scale of the one that began in May 2026. In just a few months, the current epidemic, caused by the Bundibugyo variant, has already broken several records.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing one of its most serious health crises in recent years. The first cases were detected in Ituri Province, in the northeastern part of the country, and from there the disease began spreading to other regions. The 2018–2020 outbreak, which until now had been the largest recorded in the country, ended with 3,317 confirmed cases. In total, including probable cases, it left 2,287 people dead, 1,171 patients recovered and a fatality rate of 66 percent. The current outbreak has already far surpassed those figures. As of September 10, 2026, it has recorded 7,022 confirmed cases, 3,398 deaths and 1,671 recovered patients, with a fatality rate of nearly 48 percent. In less than four months, the 2026 epidemic has already recorded more than twice as many confirmed cases as the entire 2018–2020 outbreak.

The outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo ebolavirus, a less common variant of the disease that presents a particularly troubling problem. There is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment against this species of the virus. However, the emergency has accelerated the search for new tools to fight it. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the Ervebo vaccine, approved against another species of ebolavirus, is being used under a research protocol because it is still unknown whether it can protect humans against Bundibugyo. As of September 6, 2,007 health care and frontline workers had been vaccinated in six health zones across three provinces. The search also extends to possible treatments. The PARTNERS clinical trial began enrolling patients in July and has already included more than 300 people with confirmed cases treated at five treatment centers in Ituri. The results could determine whether any of the experimental therapies can reduce mortality from a disease for which treatment, so far, depends primarily on supportive care.

The spread has been aided by the characteristics of the territory and the difficulties facing the country. Since the first cases were detected in Ituri, the virus has spread to 62 health zones in seven provinces. The most recent is Sud-Ubangi, in the northwest, where one case was confirmed in the Bulu health zone. Until then, cases had been concentrated in Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele. The appearance of the disease in the western part of the country, far from the epicenter in Ituri, shows how greatly the geographic reach of the epidemic has expanded.

One of the main mechanisms of transmission is direct contact with infected people or their bodily fluids. This can occur inside homes, in medical facilities and especially during certain funeral practices, when family members come into contact with the body of someone who has died. A lack of access to clean water, difficulties reaching certain communities and distrust of health authorities also complicate the response. Added to this is the presence of armed groups in different parts of the country's east, which makes the work of doctors and humanitarian organizations more difficult. Mass population displacement, overcrowded settlements and inadequate water and sanitation make early detection of cases and the monitoring of people who may have been exposed even more difficult.

The danger is not limited to Congo's borders. The Democratic Republic of the Congo shares land borders with nine countries, including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. The heavy movement of people, merchants and workers across border regions increases the risk that an infected person could travel before developing symptoms and carry the virus into another territory.

The outbreak has already demonstrated that this possibility is real. Uganda recorded cases epidemiologically linked to infections originating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it managed to control the outbreak and no new cases were recorded. A case of Ebola was also confirmed in France in a doctor who had returned from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The patient recovered and no secondary infections were recorded, but the case demonstrated that the virus can travel far beyond neighboring countries. The possibility of new cases outside Congo has kept surveillance active at airports, ports and official border crossings. However, many people travel along informal routes that escape those controls. For this reason, the WHO continues to emphasize epidemiological surveillance and cooperation between countries to rapidly detect imported cases and prevent new chains of transmission.

The difficulty of containing the epidemic also has roots in the country's history. The Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, but the decades that followed were marked by coups, political conflicts and wars. After more than three decades under the rule of Joseph Mobutu, his fall in 1997 was followed by new fighting, including the Second Congo War, which involved several African countries and caused an enormous humanitarian crisis. Its consequences are still felt in some of the regions where Ebola is being fought today. Eastern Congo continues to be affected by violence from armed groups, and millions of people remain displaced or have limited access to basic services. In Ituri alone, there are approximately one million internally displaced people, making it more difficult for health teams to reach communities, care for the sick and monitor people who may have been exposed to the virus.

Controlling the outbreak therefore requires much more than treating the sick. It also requires reaching isolated communities, improving surveillance and health services, combating misinformation and gaining the trust of the population. The scale of the effort has led the WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch a six-month continental plan aimed at mobilizing $518 million for surveillance, laboratories, clinical care, prevention, research and preparedness in countries at risk.

Despite the scale of the outbreak, the risk is not the same everywhere. The WHO considers the risk to remain very high within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and high for neighboring countries, especially those that share land borders with it. At the regional and global levels, however, the risk remains low. The epidemic remains classified as a public health emergency of international concern, but not as a pandemic emergency.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been confronting Ebola for half a century, but it has never had to contain an outbreak of this magnitude. As the search continues for an effective vaccine and treatment against Bundibugyo, the immediate challenge is to stop an epidemic that is still growing and prevent it from spreading further within and beyond the country.

Written  by

John Merolla, Reporter

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