On June 22, 2026, health officials reported that the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has reached 1,003 confirmed cases, with 254 fatalities. The outbreak, concentrated in the Ituri province and attributed to the Bundibugyo virus strain, remains a significant public health challenge due to the lack of vaccines and treatments.
Congo’s Ministry of Health announced that 100 individuals have recovered since the outbreak was declared on May 15. However, 365 patients remain hospitalized or in isolation. Officials are concerned about many potential undetected cases, highlighting fears that the outbreak’s peak lies ahead.
Contact tracing failures are a primary concern, with local authorities achieving only 55% coverage. Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized the importance of identifying the index case to control the outbreak effectively yet expressed doubts about the current understanding of the outbreak’s origins.
The Ministry of Health has yet to identify patient zero. Over 35,000 individuals who have interacted with infected patients remain untraced. Complicating these efforts is the ongoing violence from rebel groups in eastern Congo, particularly the ISIS-backed Allied Democratic Force in Ituri, which limits access to affected areas and displaces populations.
Kigonze displacement camp, located in Bunia, houses over 20,000 displaced individuals. Camp officials reported ten mysterious deaths within a week, although no Ebola cases have been confirmed. The alarming death rate has prompted calls for further investigation into the causes.
The U.N. refugee agency expressed increasing concerns about the virus’s spread and the dangers it presents to displaced communities throughout the region, noting that over 2 million people, including 320,000 refugees, are at risk.
Charité Banza, a civil society leader in Ituri, highlighted the catastrophic potential of the outbreak spreading in such precarious conditions at Kigonze, where basic needs are already challenging to meet.