The authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reported that the Ebola outbreak declared in mid-May in the east of the country has already surpassed 6,500 infections, with nearly 3,150 deaths, in a context of growing concern about a possible spread of the disease to areas in the center of the African country.
The National Institute of Public Health (INSP) has detailed that so far 6,522 infections and 3,134 deaths have been confirmed, with 86 new cases and 30 deaths in the last 24 hours. In that same period, 21 people have been discharged, raising the total number of patients who have managed to overcome the disease to 1,516.
The agency has also indicated that the fatality rate of the virus currently stands at 48.1%, while contact tracing reaches 86%. The province of Ituri, in the northeast of the country, continues to be the main focus of the outbreak, accounting for 80.9% of the infections recorded by health authorities.
This Ebola outbreak in the DRC has already become the deadliest in the country's history, surpassing the one recorded between 2018 and 2020. Projections suggest that it could even exceed the one that affected West Africa between 2014 and 2016, which left 28,616 infections and 11,325 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
DRC —which in December 2025 declared the end of another outbreak in the Kasai region— is considered the country with the most experience worldwide in managing the Ebola virus, having faced more than a dozen outbreaks since it was first identified in 1976, in a double outbreak that had one of its foci in the Congolese locality of Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, which gave the disease its name.