DR Congo Ebola Outbreak Now Second Largest in History, WHO Says
WHO says DR Congo's Ebola outbreak is the second-largest on record, with 4,449 cases and 2,061 deaths, and warns it is spreading faster than ever.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) is now the second-largest ever recorded. The announcement came during a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, where WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered a stark assessment of the crisis.
According to the latest official figures, the outbreak has resulted in 4,449 confirmed cases and 2,061 deaths across five provinces and 53 health zones. Tedros noted that the epidemic is moving faster than any previous Ebola outbreak, warning that if the current rate of transmission continues, it could surpass the devastating West African outbreak of 2014-2016, which remains the deadliest in history.
The data, released by DR Congo's public health authorities, indicates an overall case fatality rate of 46.3 percent. Currently, 716 patients remain in isolation or under hospital care, while 886 people have recovered from the virus.
Tedros explained that the outbreak had gained a significant head start before it was detected, and response efforts are still struggling to catch up with its spread. A major concern is that a high proportion of deaths are occurring in communities rather than at treatment centers, and many cases are being discovered outside known contact lists. This suggests that transmission chains remain unidentified, complicating containment efforts.
Approximately 90 percent of all confirmed cases and 80 percent of deaths have been concentrated in Ituri province, where sustained transmission continues unabated.
To address these challenges, the WHO is working with partners to map and pool resources. The strategy focuses on strengthening community-based surveillance to ensure every suspected case is brought into care, with a target of reaching 95 percent contact tracing coverage—a threshold deemed necessary to interrupt transmission and bring the outbreak under control.