Ebola Cases in DR Congo Pass 10,000 in Country's Fastest-Growing Outbreak

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has passed 10,000, as the outbreak keeps spreading across the country and into neighbouring states. Data released by the DRC's Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday put confirmed cases at 10,060 and deaths at 4,887.

Nearly half of those confirmed to have the virus have died. The figures make this the fastest-growing and deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country's history. Counting infections outside the DRC, the wider outbreak is the second-largest and second-deadliest on record, behind only the 2014-2016 West African epidemic, which infected 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 within two years.

Control remains out of reach. About 80 percent of new cases are arising outside the transmission chains that health authorities are monitoring. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said at least 95 percent of cases must come from known contacts of infected people before an outbreak can be considered under control.

The outbreak was declared on May 15 and is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola strain for which no vaccine or treatment has been approved. The World Health Organization announced on Friday that the first clinical trial of a vaccine had begun.

Five months in, responders say some treatment centres are overwhelmed, while remote and newly affected areas lack medical supplies and health workers. Cases have been recorded in 66 health zones across eight provinces, up from three in the first days. Many teams lack vehicles and struggle to persuade families to hand over the sick for treatment and the dead for safe burial. At least half of those who died were never admitted for care.

The crisis has also disrupted routine health services such as childhood vaccinations, and maternal deaths doubled in some provinces soon after the outbreak was declared. Strikes over delayed or unpaid wages are common. Last week, responders in Nia Nia, in Ituri province, stopped work over bonuses owed since late August.

Health workers have faced violence amid public mistrust and frustration with the government's response. On Saturday, assailants killed a nurse and seriously injured a colleague who were responding to a suspected case in Bafwasende, Tshopo province, the WHO said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that everyone working to protect communities "must be able to work in dignity and safety." Last month, local politician Marie-Celestin Karondwa was fatally beaten after defending the Ebola response on the radio, his party said.

The virus has reached further across borders than any earlier Ebola epidemic. In Uganda, Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi announced on Sunday that citizens returning from the DRC must quarantine for 21 days at their own expense. Officials there say no infections are currently active after 20 cases, mostly imported from the DRC, and two deaths over the summer.

Swiss authorities said a woman married to a Swiss diplomat was infected during a September visit to Uganda. She was diagnosed last week while visiting Nigeria, making it the fourth African country affected, and Nigeria has stepped up airport screening. She was evacuated to Switzerland for treatment on Monday.

In Kenya, confirmed infections rose rapidly in October. Twenty contacts of the country's first patient were released from mandatory quarantine on Monday after 21 days, while 98 remain under monitoring, the WHO said. Kenya's tally has since reached nine confirmed cases, two of them fatal.