The authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have indicated this Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak declared in mid-May in the east of the country is approaching 2,500 cases and 975 deaths, while the disease continues to spread and already affects five provinces.
In its latest report, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) has detailed that, so far, 2,423 infections and 967 deaths have been confirmed, with 79 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours --70 in Ituri and nine in North Kivu-- and 37 additional deaths --35 in Ituri and two in North Kivu-- during that same period.
The agency has also specified that in the last day, 252 suspected cases have been identified, and has added that there are currently 734 people in isolation, while 469 patients have managed to overcome the disease since the outbreak began. Thus, the fatality rate stands at 39.9%, and contact tracing reaches 81.1%.
Furthermore, a new affected health zone has been incorporated in Ituri, that of Adja, so that 47 of the 140 health areas of the impacted provinces --Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, and Haut-Uele-- are already affected by the outbreak, including 46 in which "active transmission" of the virus has been detected.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak --caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment-- as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), in a context of warnings from international organizations about the spread of the virus, which could be overwhelming the response capacity.
DRC --which in December 2025 announced the end of the previous Ebola outbreak in the country, recorded in Kasai-- is considered the state with the greatest global experience in managing the Ebola virus, having faced more than a dozen outbreaks since the pathogen was identified in 1976, in a double episode that had one of its focal points in the Congolese locality of Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, which gave its name to the disease.