Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo have risen above 8,000 for the first time, government data showed on Monday, the Daily Mirror reported, citing Reuters.
The latest situation report from Congo’s public health institute put the outbreak at 8,067 confirmed cases and 3,901 deaths.
Already the worst in the country’s history
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola — a rarer strain than the Zaire virus behind most previous epidemics, and one for which there is no licensed vaccine or treatment.
It became the largest and deadliest outbreak in Congo’s history after surpassing the 2018-2020 epidemic in the country’s east.
Globally it now ranks second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed over 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The trajectory
The scale of the escalation is visible in this site’s own coverage. In mid-August the WHO was warning the outbreak was “on track” to become the deadliest on record, with a toll then above 2,000 dead. Six weeks later the confirmed death count has nearly doubled and the “on track” warning has been overtaken by events.
On the reported figures, the case fatality rate stands at roughly 48% — close to one death for every two confirmed infections.
What this report does not settle
The Reuters dispatch carried by the Daily Mirror gives national totals only. It does not break the figures down by province, give a date for the data cut-off beyond “Monday”, or address the state of the response — vaccination, treatment capacity or health-worker staffing. Confirmed cases are also a floor rather than a true count in an outbreak of this size, since they exclude infections never tested.
