DRC Ebola Outbreak is now its Deadliest Ever
Last update: August 17, 2026
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One death every half an hour. That’s the terrifying pace of the Ebola outbreak tearing through the Democratic Republic of Congo right now.
According to a report from cbinews.tv, the DRC is facing what is being described as its deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, and the numbers are truly harrowing.
Government figures released on Monday put the toll at 2,325 deaths from almost 5,000 confirmed cases. If you do the maths, that’s roughly one life lost every 30 minutes.
As reported by cbinews.tv, that death toll has now surpassed the 2018 to 2020 outbreak in North Kivu, which killed close to 2,300 people from more than 3,300 confirmed cases and was previously considered the country’s worst.
But to put this in context, let’s look at the bigger picture:
Historically, the DRC has battled Ebola since it was first discovered near the Ebola River in 1976. This would be the country’s 16th outbreak. While this is now the deadliest inside the DRC, the deadliest outbreak globally remains the catastrophic West Africa epidemic of 2014-2016, which killed over 11,300 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organisation.
So why is this one spreading so fast?
The report from cbinews.tv points to two major problems. First, contact tracing is falling behind. A staggering 70% of new cases are being found in people who weren’t even on the watch list. That means they’ve been out in the community, potentially exposing countless others before anyone knew they were ill.
Second, and perhaps more critically, is conflict. The epicentre of this outbreak is Ituri province in the north-east, an area plagued by armed militia fighting. Frequent population movements and villages that are simply too dangerous or remote for surveillance teams to reach are creating the perfect hiding place for the virus.
There is some hope, though. On Friday, the United Nations announced an extra $30 million in emergency funding to help plug the gaps in response, surveillance and treatment.
It’s a race against time, and against geography and conflict, to stop this becoming an even bigger tragedy.
Source: Original reporting by cbinews.tv
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