The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak ever recorded, with the death toll surpassing 1,354 and confirmed cases climbing to 3,075 — a rise of 27 percent in a single week, according to government figures released on Saturday. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union's public health agency, has warned that if the outbreak is not brought under control immediately, it could become the deadliest in history. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has cautioned that the true case count may be more than double the official figure, as active conflict in eastern DRC continues to restrict access to affected communities.
The outbreak, centred in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, involves the Bundibugyo variant of Ebola — the rarest of the four strains known to infect humans, and one for which no approved vaccine or treatment currently exists. In less than ten weeks, the epidemic has surpassed 1,000 deaths; by comparison, the catastrophic 2013–2016 West African outbreak, which ultimately killed more than 11,000 people, took eight months to reach that milestone. In a significant development, a volunteer received the first dose of an experimental Bundibugyo vaccine developed by the University of Oxford on Friday, which the research team called "an important milestone" in the multinational effort to find a countermeasure.
The human toll extends well beyond confirmed cases. More than 100 health workers have been infected and around 35 have died. At multiple facilities in Ituri, medical staff have gone on strike over unpaid wages and dangerous working conditions — a strike began on Saturday at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, the provincial capital, where approximately 100 workers protested outside, warning that unpaid bonuses were directly undermining patient care. In May, parts of Rwampara General Hospital near Bunia were set ablaze by angry residents, reflecting the deep community mistrust that continues to hamper the response. Despite these pressures, frontline workers report some encouraging signs: more patients are voluntarily seeking treatment, and community trust appears to be slowly growing in parts of Ituri.
A German paediatrician working with the medical organisation ALIMA in Bunia describes conditions that illustrate both the gravity of the crisis and the ingenuity of responders. Around 20 to 30 percent of those infected are children and adolescents, he notes, whose initial symptoms — lethargy, poor feeding — can easily be confused with malaria, leading to dangerous delays in diagnosis. Transparent plexiglass tents have been introduced at treatment centres, allowing doctors to monitor patients continuously without donning full protective suits, and allowing families to see and speak with sick relatives — a measure that has visibly improved patient wellbeing. Pregnant women face a particularly high risk, with nearly a third not surviving infection and a high likelihood of miscarriage or neonatal infection.
Contact tracing now reaches roughly 80 percent of known contacts, but response teams are still unable to reach every village, particularly in areas of active armed conflict. The United States and Canada have imposed entry restrictions on recent travellers from DRC, a step that runs counter to WHO guidance issued when the outbreak was declared a global health emergency in May. WHO and Africa CDC officials stress that medical intervention alone cannot resolve the crisis: a political ceasefire is urgently needed to allow humanitarian access to be scaled up across affected and at-risk provinces. "People in DRC cannot face this outbreak alone," the WHO has said. "They need sustained support from the international community and, above all, they need peace."