The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is set to be the worst to date if it continues to spread at its current rate, according to the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday that unless curbed, the epidemic is “on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016”, which claimed over 11,000 lives.
Declared on 15 May, the current outbreak is the fastest growing on record and has so far infected over 4,300 people, claiming more than 2,000 lives.
Health experts say that this particular outbreak has been able to spread to such an extent due to a unique set of circumstances.
The rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus responsible for the outbreak currently has no approved vaccines or treatments, although Phase I human trials for two vaccine candidates are now underway in Canada and the UK.
On-the-ground teams of healthcare workers continually struggle to reach the worst effected communities who often reside in remote and isolated areas.
Ongoing conflict in the country has displaced thousands and also affected monitoring and containment of the disease, restricting the movement of surveillance teams and Rapid Response Teams, and the transporting of laboratory samples.
Areas where the virus is spreading rampantly are typically ill-equipped and have poor infrastructure. For these reasons, there has been a lack of standardised isolation of the sick, fewer available treatment facilities and weak screening and referral pathways.
Mistrust amongst residents has led to inconsistent implementation of safe and dignified burial measures for the deceased, posing a significant risk of healthcare-associated transmission.1
For these reasons, officials say they have struggled to keep up with infections and why Ebola continues to spread so quickly throughout DR Congo.
Chief Ghebreyesus said: “The outbreak had a big head start, still way ahead of us, and we’re playing catch-up”.
The warning comes just days after The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the WHO jointly called for an urgent scale-up of the community-led response to the disease.
This includes stronger early detection, contact follow up, access to care, support for frontline health workers and faster delivery of resources to affected communities.
A joint high-level mission by the organisations to border country Unganda where efforts have to control the disease have been much more successful proved that containment is possible.2
Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO’s director for health emergency alert and response operations, said the agency expects the outbreak to peak within six months in a “moderate scenario”, although he warned that a worse-case could see it continue for nine to 12 months.
References
1 WHO, Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus – Democratic Republic of the Congo, https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2026-DON603?utm_source, 2026
2 WHO, Africa CDC and WHO call for urgent, community-led action to contain Ebola in the DRChttps://www.who.int/news/item/06-08-2026-africa-cdc-and-who-call-for-urgent–community-led-action-to-contain-ebola-in-the-drc, 2026
Featured image: Belen B Massieu on AdobeStock
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