DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak has crossed a devastating new threshold, with the death toll now surpassing 3,000 people, according to government figures released Wednesday. The epidemic has infected more than 6,000 people since it was declared in mid-May, making it the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history.
Government data shows the death toll has climbed to 3,007, with confirmed cases reaching 6,186 as the country’s worst-ever epidemic continues to spread across its northeast. The outbreak has now become the largest and deadliest in Congo’s history, surpassing the 2018–2020 epidemic that killed over 2,280 people.
It ranks second only to the 2014–2016 West African outbreak, which infected more than 28,600 people and claimed over 11,000 lives across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Congo’s Ebola outbreak kills more than 3,000, government figures show | CNBC Africa +2
The current crisis is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a rarer and historically less-studied variant of the virus. Unlike the more common Zaire strain, Bundibugyo has no approved vaccine or treatment, though several candidates are in development, including ones from the University of Oxford and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
The outbreak’s case-fatality ratio stands at roughly 48.2 percent, meaning nearly one in every two confirmed patients has died.
The epicentre remains Ituri Province, and the outbreak has now spread across six provinces and nearly 60 health zones. Compounding the crisis, the World Health Organisation estimates around 60 percent of deaths are occurring outside treatment centres, underscoring how difficult it has been for health workers to reach and treat patients before the disease takes hold, particularly in the conflict-affected east and northeast of the country.
In response, Congolese authorities have begun vaccinating frontline health workers using Merck’s Ervebo vaccine, which was originally licensed for the Zaire strain but is believed to offer some cross-protection against Bundibugyo. The WHO and Africa CDC have announced that DRC will receive 70,000 doses of Ervebo, with 20,000 earmarked for a Phase 3 clinical trial and the remaining 50,000 for frontline and healthcare workers.
Health authorities and international partners continue to describe the outbreak’s rapid growth and geographic spread as a matter of grave concern, as the country works to contain a crisis already unlike any it has faced before.
