Ebola Fatalities in DRC Exceed 1,300 Amid Rapid Virus Spread

Nairobi, Kenya – The death toll from the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen above 1,309, marking a surge of more than 40 % within five days, according to government figures, which warn that the virus is “spreading like a wildfire”.

Updated data released on Saturday indicated that as of Thursday, the total number of confirmed cases, including fatalities, had reached 2,973, representing a 27 % increase from the previous Saturday.

The unprecedented speed of case growth and rising fatalities have positioned the DRC epidemic as the fastest‑spreading Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

Compounding the threat, the pathogen involved is the Bundibugyo strain, the rarest of the four known human‑infecting Ebola variants and currently without any approved vaccines or specific treatments.

Abdulsalami Nasidi, a public‑health consultant who helped establish the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union’s public‑health agency, told Al Jazeera that the absence of a proven vaccine has allowed the virus to “spread like a wildfire”.

Nasidi noted that the epidemic is unfolding in an area of active conflict, further straining the limited health resources typical of African governments facing outbreaks.

Scientists are working to curb transmission, and the University of Oxford’s Oxford Vaccine Group announced that a volunteer had received the first dose of an experimentally developed vaccine on Friday.

“This milestone is important for the trial and marks the next phase of our multinational effort to develop a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine,” said the trial’s chief investigator, Katrina Pollock.

The largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak on record claimed over 11,000 lives among at least 28,000 cases in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, primarily affecting Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

That outbreak required approximately eight months to reach the first 1,000 deaths, whereas the current DRC epidemic reached that threshold in less than 10 weeks.

“We must act now,” Africa CDC Director‑General Jean Kaseya wrote on X last week. “If we do not stop it today, this will become the worst outbreak the world has ever witnessed.”

Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma, said the government’s response has lacked coordination and urgency, leaving medical personnel overstretched and operating under poor conditions.

He added that the death toll among health workers continued to rise on Saturday, with a doctor and a health worker among the latest victims.

More than 100 health workers have been infected since the outbreak was declared in May, and around 35 have died; this figure is exacerbated by shortages of protective equipment and, in some communities, hostility toward responders who are questioned about the disease’s existence.

An increasing number of healthcare workers at several facilities in the northeastern province of Ituri, the outbreak’s epicentre, have gone on strike over unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions.

Last week, dozens of staff at Rwampara General Hospital near Bunia staged a strike; the hospital operates a major Ebola treatment centre that was partially set ablaze in May by angry residents who also chased fleeing health workers.

The latest strike began on Saturday at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, the provincial capital, effectively halting activities as doctors, nurses and security staff stopped work.

Approximately 100 workers protested outside the centre, stating that unpaid bonuses are undermining morale and disrupting patient care.

“We need to be paid, because in the meantime the disease is spreading at the treatment centre,” said Martin Bolombi, a striking worker, to The Associated Press. “I’ve already had five people die who are still inside there. A solution must be found for us.”

WHO Director‑General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the true number of cases could exceed double the official count as insecurity continues to restrict access to affected communities.

Contact tracing now reaches roughly 80 % of known contacts, but response teams still cannot reach every village or deploy where they are needed most.

The United States and Canada have both restricted entry for travellers who have recently been in the DRC, measures that conflict with the WHO’s own May guidance, when it declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

Tedros has called for a ceasefire in the conflict gripping eastern DRC, arguing that medical resources alone are insufficient and that political action is needed to open pathways for responders before the virus spreads to unaffected provinces.

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