DRC Ebola outbreak becomes deadliest in the country’s history as cases surge

Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has crossed another grim milestone, becoming the deadliest outbreak in the country’s history as health authorities report a continuing rise in infections and deaths.

According to official figures reported by The Guardian World in its latest dispatch, at least 2,325 people have died in the current outbreak. That total is now higher than the death toll from the DRC’s 2018-20 epidemic. The country’s public health institute said confirmed cases had climbed to 4,945, with 101 new cases identified in the previous 24 hours.

The outbreak is spreading faster than any known Ebola crisis

The World Health Organization has warned that the crisis is still on course to overtake west Africa’s 2014-16 epidemic as the largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history. WHO data on that earlier emergency put the totals at 28,616 cases and 11,325 deaths across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The comparison is especially alarming because of the pace at which deaths are mounting in the DRC. Officials say it took almost five months for the west Africa outbreak to reach 1,000 deaths. In this outbreak, more than 2,000 deaths were recorded in less than three months. On Friday, the UN said Ebola was “winning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” and said someone was dying every 30 minutes.

This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC’s history, but the current one is now being described as the fastest-growing in the known history of the virus. The scale of the crisis is concentrated in the country’s northeast, where six of the DRC’s 26 provinces have been affected. More than 3,400 cases have been recorded in Ituri province, where the outbreak was first identified.

Why the situation remains so dangerous

The latest surge involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are still no approved vaccines or treatments. That has made the response more difficult even as medical teams race to contain the spread.

There are some signs of survival amid the crisis. Health officials say around 1,000 people have recovered, while about 730 others remain in healthcare or isolation facilities. But the broader trend remains severe, and experts say late detection is still a major obstacle.

Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist deployed to the DRC by Médecins Sans Frontières, said the pattern is moving in the wrong direction. He said that in a typical outbreak the fatality rate should decline as contact tracing improves and patients are found and treated sooner. Instead, he said many patients are still being identified very late, often when treatment is less likely to work and sometimes only after death in the community.

The WHO has said response efforts have been hampered by attacks on healthcare facilities, misinformation about safe burial practices, and strikes by some unpaid health workers. The agency has also pointed to the impact of years of unrest, outside interference in traumatised communities, and weak health and road infrastructure.

Vaccines and treatment trials are under way, but options are limited

Clinical trials of two possible treatments for the Bundibugyo strain began last month in Ituri. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that two vaccines developed specifically for Bundibugyo were also being tested on people.

Those efforts could prove important, but they are unfolding in a setting where many patients are still not reaching care in time. Mohamed Janabi, the WHO’s regional Africa director, said more than 70% of people die in the community rather than in health centres. That means many cases may be missed until the disease is already advanced or until families are forced to seek help too late.

Local testimony reflects that fear. Jean-Paul Malo Lotsima, a civil society official in Djugu in Ituri, said people often prefer home care because they believe the illness may be poisoning or another disease. He said families sometimes wait until the last minute before taking patients to hospital, and some die on the way.

A similar account came from Flavier Ngurima, who lives in Nizi, one of the outbreak’s hotspots in Ituri. He said his brother died before reaching the treatment centre after the family first called a nurse to treat him at home. The fear, he said, was that many people die at the Ebola treatment centre.

Uganda has contained its cases, but the regional emergency continues

The crisis has also affected Uganda, where authorities have reported at least 20 cases, all in Kampala. The last case there was reported on 21 June, and no community transmission has been recorded. Uganda’s government declared the country Ebola-free on 28 July after its last patient, a Congolese national, was discharged on 16 July.

Even so, the wider outbreak remains a regional emergency. In May, the WHO declared the situation in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, saying sequencing showed the outbreak had actually begun months earlier, in February.

Ebola spreads when the virus passes from wild animals to humans and then between people through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, dead bodies, or contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding or clothing. WHO says the illness can begin with fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat, before progressing to vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, rash, and signs of kidney and liver damage.

For health officials in the DRC, the challenge is now twofold: slowing transmission and convincing frightened communities to seek help earlier. With deaths still rising and cases still being found, the outbreak has become both the country’s deadliest and one of the most worrying Ebola crises ever recorded.