DR Congo's Ebola Outbreak Becomes Third-Deadliest on Record

The Ebola outbreak tearing through the Democratic Republic of Congo has grown into the third-deadliest on record, with health authorities reporting more than 1,500 confirmed cases and over 500 deaths as of early July — a grim escalation from the toll of just weeks earlier.

The epidemic, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, was declared in mid-May in both the DRC and neighbouring Uganda. What makes it especially dangerous is that there is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for this particular strain, though candidate therapies are being tested. Responders are, in effect, fighting the virus with the oldest tools: isolation, contact tracing and safe burials.

The eastern province of Ituri remains the epicentre, accounting for the overwhelming majority of cases and deaths across two dozen health zones, with the virus having since spread to North and South Kivu. These are among the most volatile regions in the country, and the outbreak is unfolding amid armed conflict, mass displacement and the constant movement of people and goods — conditions that make containment extraordinarily difficult.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in mid-May, its highest level of alarm, reflecting fears the virus could spread further across borders. International agencies including MSF have mobilised, but insecurity repeatedly hampers the response, cutting off affected communities and endangering health workers.

With case numbers still climbing, the fear is that this outbreak — already among the worst the country has ever recorded — has not yet peaked. For a region battered by war and hunger, an Ebola emergency of this scale is a catastrophe layered upon catastrophe.