The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has surged past 5,000 confirmed cases and 2,500 deaths, making it the deadliest in the country’s history and the second-largest globally, as the United Nations warns that response funding could run out within weeks.
As of August 19, the DRC’s health ministry reported 5,290 confirmed cases and 2,516 related deaths, with a fatality rate of 47.6 percent. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus for which no vaccine or specific treatment currently exists, has been spreading across an area larger than France since it was declared on May 15.
Exponential Growth Across Six Provinces
Julien Harneis, the UN Senior Ebola Coordinator, said half of all deaths occurred in just the last 20 days. “The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France, and the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response,” he told journalists from Bunia, the epicentre in Ituri province. Of the 151 health zones across six affected provinces, 56 are currently experiencing transmission.
Ituri province remains the hardest hit with 4,447 cases and 1,984 deaths across 28 of its 36 health zones. North Kivu has recorded 663 cases and 452 deaths, while Haut-Uele has reported 160 cases and 71 deaths. Smaller clusters have been detected in Tshopo, South Kivu, and Bas-Uele.
Frontline Workers Under Siege
The toll on healthcare workers has been severe. At least 160 medical staff have contracted the virus and 43 have died, hampering the response in a region already scarred by years of conflict. The WHO’s second IHR Emergency Committee meeting on August 18 assessed the situation as a public health emergency of international concern.
CDC data shows the outbreak surpassed 1,000 confirmed cases within 40 days of response activation, compared to 235 days during the 2018 DRC outbreak. The US health agency has issued travel restrictions barring passengers who have been in the DRC within 21 days from boarding commercial flights to US destinations.
Funding Gap Threatens Response
“We’re only covered for the next weeks, and very soon funding will run out,” Harneis warned. “Every delay in funding and implementation makes this epidemic more deadly, more difficult to stop and more expensive.” WHO has allocated Ebola vaccines to the DRC as of August 20, while clinical trials for treatments and diagnostics are underway, but the pace of the outbreak continues to outstrip the scale of the international response.
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