Africa CDC Warns of Uncontrolled Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo: 'Could Be the Worst Ever'

Africa’s leading public health agency has warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains uncontrolled six months after its initial declaration. Jean Kaseya, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told Reuters news agency on Sunday that failure to stop the current outbreak could result in the worst Ebola crisis the world has ever seen.

According to government data, more than 11,200 cases and 5,500 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak began on May 15. Kaseya highlighted a concerning trend, noting that over 80 percent of new cases are appearing outside of contact lists and more than 65 percent of deaths are occurring within the community rather than in health centres.

The virus has now spread to East, Central, and West Africa, marking the widest geographic distribution of any Ebola outbreak on the continent to date. Kaseya emphasized that the situation remains serious and is not yet under control.

The current crisis is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which causes haemorrhagic fever. It currently stands as the second-largest and second-deadliest outbreak on record, surpassed only by the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected over 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000. Eight of the DRC’s 26 provinces have been affected, with delayed detection, ongoing conflict, and strained health services accelerating the spread.

Kaseya described the coordination between the DRC and donors as a †collective failure‘, revealing that only $1.3bn of the $2.9bn pledged by donors has been released. He added that Africa CDC is working with Kinshasa to prevent wasteful duplication and assist the DRC in digitising payrolls for health workers who have gone unpaid for months.

Containment efforts have been hampered by the lack of a vaccine or treatment specifically for the Bundibugyo strain, which has a fatality rate of approximately 50 percent. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently approved clinical trials for two new vaccines, with results expected in early 2027. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted on X that transmission is slowing in some early epicentres and that clinical trials, including the Tumaini trial, are progressing rapidly. The WHO also reported that at least 3,000 people in the DRC have recovered and returned home.