The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC, on Thursday warned that the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in DR Congo has become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded globally at the five-week stage of an epidemic, heightening concerns over rising pressure on treatment centres and continued community transmission.
Speaking during the agency’s weekly media briefing, Africa CDC Director-General, Dr Jean Kaseya, said the outbreak had expanded sharply over the past week, with 243 new infections — a 28 per cent increase — while treatment centres were operating near full capacity.
According to the latest epidemiological update, the DRC has recorded 1,118 cumulative Ebola cases, including 291 deaths, for a case fatality rate of about 26 per cent.
“Within the last seven days alone, 89 deaths and 55 recoveries were recorded,” Kaseya said.
He said treatment centres were at 95 per cent occupancy, with 408 confirmed and suspected patients currently in isolation.
“The current Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak is now the largest Ebola event ever documented at Week Five when compared with previous outbreaks,” he said.
Kaseya said the outbreak had already outpaced Uganda’s 2000 Gulu Ebola outbreak and had surpassed the early trajectories of the 1995 Kikwit outbreak, the 2014 West Africa epidemic and the 2018–2020 eastern DRC outbreak.
He said Ituri Province remained the epicentre, accounting for 1,020 cases, or about 91 per cent of all infections reported in the DRC.
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“North Kivu has recorded 95 cases, while South Kivu has reported three cases,” he said.
Kaseya also disclosed that 78 healthcare workers had been infected since the outbreak began, underscoring the risks facing frontline responders.
He confirmed that an Ebola response worker later travelled to France, where the individual tested positive, prompting intensified collaboration among the DRC, France and regional partners.
He stressed, however, that the imported case should not trigger travel restrictions but rather reinforce the need for stronger surveillance and rapid response mechanisms.
“There is no recommendation for travel restrictions,” he said.
Africa CDC, he added, is working closely with the DRC, Uganda, France, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Union to strengthen cross-border surveillance, preparedness and technical coordination.
Despite improvements in surveillance, Kaseya said major operational gaps remained.
He said only 77.1 per cent of identified contacts were currently under active follow-up, well below the target of 95 per cent. He added that only about 30 per cent of confirmed cases had originated from known contacts, suggesting significant community transmission was still occurring undetected.
He said each confirmed Ebola case was currently linked to an average of only eight identified contacts, compared with the 20 to 40 contacts per patient typically required for effective outbreak control.
Shortages of trained safe and dignified burial teams, he said, were also hampering response efforts.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Uganda has so far contained transmission to relatively low levels.
Kaseya said Uganda had recorded 20 cumulative cases, made up of 15 imported infections and five locally acquired cases, with 14 recoveries and two deaths.
“All nine active contacts in the country are currently under monitoring, representing 100 per cent follow-up,” he said.
He added that Uganda and the DRC had signed a cross-border memorandum of understanding to strengthen surveillance, laboratory collaboration and joint treatment operations.
In what he described as a major scientific milestone, Kaseya said therapeutic clinical trials were expected to begin next week in Bunia.
The first study, scheduled to start on June 29, will evaluate the effectiveness of Remdesivir alongside MBP134, an investigational monoclonal antibody therapy.
A second trial assessing Obeldesivir, an oral antiviral intended to prevent Ebola infection among exposed contacts, is expected to begin during the week of July 6.
Kaseya said all ethical and regulatory approvals had been secured, with shipments of Remdesivir already delivered to the DRC and MBP134 expected within days.
He also reported progress in vaccine development, saying several candidate vaccines targeting the Bundibugyo Ebola strain were advancing with support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
According to him, the vaccine candidates use ChAdOx1, mRNA, rVSV and Modified Vaccinia Ankara platforms, with manufacturing partnerships involving India and Egypt.
He said discussions were ongoing to expand Africa’s manufacturing capacity through technology transfer if any of the candidates proves successful.
On diagnostics, Kaseya said laboratory capacity in the DRC had surpassed 1,000 Ebola tests daily following the deployment of 52 molecular testing platforms and more than 129,000 diagnostic cartridges.
He said the agency aimed to expand capacity to 100 platforms across the DRC and neighbouring high-risk countries before the end of July, while accelerating the rollout of rapid diagnostic tests.
On financing, Kaseya said development partners had pledged about $910 million toward the Ebola response, but only about 13 per cent of the funds had so far been disbursed.
He said African governments had collectively committed about $80 million, while additional support had come from the United States, the European Union, the Pandemic Fund, Germany, France, China, Egypt and the Global Fund.
However, he warned that the overall response now required about $1.4 billion to address both humanitarian and public health needs, particularly as the outbreak was affecting more than 1.15 million internally displaced persons in affected areas.
To curb further spread, Kaseya called for the rapid deployment of at least 20,000 community health workers within four weeks, with Africa CDC supporting an initial deployment of 4,000 personnel.
He also announced the rollout of digital surveillance systems, including DHIS2, cross-border monitoring platforms and satellite-supported connectivity, to strengthen case detection, contact tracing and response coordination.
He reiterated that early detection, strong community engagement, rapid isolation of cases and sustained international solidarity remained the most effective tools for bringing the outbreak under control.
