Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo Turns Deadly as Cases Climb Past 1,100
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has grown into one of the deadliest the country has faced in years, with health authorities reporting more than 1,100 confirmed cases and over 300 deaths as the epidemic strains an already fragile region.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, was declared in mid-May in both the DRC and neighbouring Uganda after laboratory tests confirmed the infection. Within days the World Health Organization designated it a public health emergency of international concern — its highest level of alarm — reflecting fears the virus could spread across borders.
The eastern province of Ituri has borne the heaviest toll, accounting for the vast majority of confirmed cases across more than twenty health zones, with further infections reported in North and South Kivu. It is the seventeenth Ebola outbreak the DRC has recorded, a grim reminder of how repeatedly the disease has emerged in the country's forested east.
What makes this outbreak especially dangerous is the setting. The affected provinces are among the most volatile in the country, where armed conflict, mass displacement and hunger already overwhelm health services. The WHO has warned that fighting and food insecurity are hampering the response, making it harder to trace contacts, vaccinate and treat the sick before the virus spreads further.
Case counts have shifted as surveillance and laboratory confirmation catch up with events on the ground, and international agencies have at times revised their figures. But the trajectory is clear enough: an Ebola emergency layered atop one of the world's most punishing humanitarian crises, testing responders in some of the hardest conditions imaginable.
