The Ebola outbreak declared in mid-May in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has already surpassed 6,700 confirmed cases, according to the latest official data. The health authorities of the country estimate that nearly 3,270 people have died as a result of the virus.
The National Institute of Public Health (INSP) details in its most recent bulletin that 6,757 infections and 3,267 deaths have been recorded so far, with 71 new cases and 41 deaths in the last 24 hours, which places the global fatality rate since the beginning of the outbreak at 48.3%.
In its report, the agency specifies that in the last day, 41 infections have been confirmed in the province of Ituri, in addition to 27 in North Kivu and three in Haut-Uele. Regarding the patients who have managed to overcome the disease, 27 new medical discharges have been reported, raising the total number of recovered individuals to 1,590.
The INSP emphasizes that Ituri continues to be the main focus of this Ebola outbreak, concentrating 80% of the confirmed cases in the six affected provinces — Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele, and Tshopo. In these regions, the virus has already reached 61 of its 151 health zones.
This outbreak in the DRC has become the deadliest recorded in the country, surpassing the one that occurred between 2018 and 2020. Projections also indicate that it could 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 figures from the World Health Organization (WHO).
DRC — which concluded another outbreak in the Kasai region in December 2025 — is considered the country with the most global experience in the fight against Ebola. Since the virus was identified in 1976, in a double outbreak whose epicenter was located in the Congolese town of Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, the country has faced more than a dozen similar emergencies.