Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to grow, with 2,423 confirmed cases reported by the government as of 19 July, including 967 deaths and 469 recoveries. The outbreak has been declared in five provinces, with Ituri province accounting for over 90 percent of cases and 80 percent of deaths, according to World Health Organization (WHO) Incident Manager Dr. Thierno Baldé.
The affected provinces are all in eastern DRC, an area facing ongoing instability and militia violence. This insecurity, combined with large displaced and mobile populations, has contributed to the spread of the Bundibugyo virus variant causing the outbreak. Currently, there is no approved vaccine or treatment for this variant.
WHO teams are modifying response strategies for each affected province. Efforts focus on expanding safe and dignified burial practices, strengthening referral systems, and increasing clinical case management capacity in hotspots like Bunia, the capital of Ituri. Dr. Baldé emphasized that the outbreak remains ahead of containment efforts, but rapid response teams are yielding promising results in locations such as Kisangani in Tshopo province, where no secondary cases have been detected; all cases there were imported from Ituri.
The five affected provinces—Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, and Tshopo—are in regions with frequent rebel violence, complicating disease surveillance and control. WHO plans to expand rapid response approaches to new areas, including Katwa and Butembo, as part of efforts to contain the outbreak along the Congo River and nearby regions.