The authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have updated this Monday the balance of the Ebola outbreak declared in mid-year in the east of the country, which has already left more than 2,900 dead and has surpassed the threshold of 6,000 confirmed infections. The advance of the epidemic keeps international alerts activated due to the risk of completely overwhelming the health response capacity.
The National Institute of Public Health (INSP) has detailed that to date, 6,041 infections have been recorded, with 2,911 deaths and 1,366 people who have managed to overcome the disease. In addition, 619 patients remain isolated or hospitalized, while the contact tracing rate stands at 82.4%.
The agency has also specified that six provinces --Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele, and Bas-Uele-- have been hit by this outbreak and added that "interventions continue to be strengthened in Ituri, North Kivu, and Haut-Uele, with ongoing actions for monitoring, care, and prevention," as stated in a statement released by the Congolese Ministry of Communication on social media.
The current outbreak in DRC has already become the deadliest recorded in the country, surpassing the one that occurred between 2018 and 2020. Projections indicate that it could even exceed the devastating episode experienced between 2014 and 2016 in West Africa, which left 28,616 cases and 11,325 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
DRC --which in December 2025 officially declared the end of another outbreak in the Kasai region-- is considered the country with the most global experience in managing the Ebola virus, having faced more than a dozen outbreaks since the pathogen was identified in 1976 in a dual focus, one of them in the Congolese locality of Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, which gave the disease its name.