The fast-moving Ebola outbreak in Congo has reached 10,000 confirmed cases, government data showed on Tuesday (October 27, 2026), as health authorities race to slow the spread of the disease in multiple African countries.
That also makes it the deadliest outbreak of the disease in the country’s history. Response teams are battling armed conflict, poor roads and violence from residents fuelled by mistrust and misinformation. Those obstacles compound the challenge of persuading people to report symptoms and accept care, in communities that have endured years of violence and repeated epidemics.
It is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and nearly half of the 10,060 confirmed to have the virus have died, according to data from Congo’s Ministry of Health. The outbreak, declared in May 2026, is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
It has spread farther across Africa than any previous Ebola outbreak, reaching three regions, with cases recorded in Kenya and Nigeria as well. It has so far been recorded in five countries, including Uganda and France, both of which have no active cases at the moment. At least half of the recorded deaths are among people who had not been admitted to treatment centres, a sign that people are still not reporting symptoms at all in many areas. In many zones, health workers are battling challenges ranging from basic needs, such as adequate vehicles, to complex ones, such as persuading families to release relatives who are sick with the disease or who have died from it and need to be buried safely. The outbreak has disrupted essential health services that are already underfunded and overstretched, and has shifted attention away from other disease outbreaks the country is battling, such as cholera. More pregnant women are dying as they avoid hospitals over fear of infection and isolation, causing maternal mortality to double in some provinces soon after the outbreak was declared. z
Compared to the West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016, history’s largest and deadliest, with more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths, this outbreak has had at least three times the number of cases and deaths in the time since it was declared. In Congo, the disease has spread to 66 health zones across eight provinces, from three zones when it was first declared in May 2026.
Responders told AP they are seeing treatment centres in some of those health zones getting overwhelmed, people still sceptical and violent towards them, and health workers regularly going on strike to protest delayed or unpaid wages.
