Congo reported 72 new Ebola cases in a single 24-hour period, pushing the confirmed total to 782 and the death toll to 181 as the outbreak deepened in the east of the country. The Ministry of Health said 29 new deaths were also recorded in the same period.
The jump gives the month-old outbreak one of its sharpest daily increases so far and puts fresh pressure on teams trying to track where the disease is moving next. Health officials said 40 people have recovered since the start, but the fatality rate remains 23%, a grim measure of how quickly the virus is taking hold even as response efforts expand.
Most of the cases remain in Ituri, which accounts for more than 90% of infections, with cases also recorded in North Kivu and South Kivu and across the border in Uganda. The outbreak was confirmed on May 15 after it was suspected to have begun weeks earlier, and the current rise comes as responders continue to search for missed chains of infection in a region where roads are poor, villages are remote and nearly a million people have been displaced by years of conflict in Ituri.
That search is getting harder, not easier. Congo said contact tracing has been hampered by community resistance in some areas and by the rapid expansion of the outbreak into new health zones, and coverage has fallen to 56%. At the same time, some of the rise in reported cases may reflect better surveillance and more active reporting, not just faster spread, with community members now reporting suspected cases and response teams investigating them.
The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, a strain that was not tested for in the early days and that has fewer outbreak precedents in Congo than the more common Zaire virus, which has caused most of the country’s past 16 outbreaks and now has a vaccine. The World Health Organization said it is intensifying testing, contact tracing and treatment, while Africa’s top health body said it is deploying technical expertise and supporting laboratory systems, case finding and community engagement efforts. Jean Kaseya said the goal is to stop transmission and urged partners and donors to mobilize resources quickly to strengthen the response and save lives. For now, the clearest reading is that Congo is trying to contain a fast-moving outbreak in one of the country’s hardest places to reach, and the next meaningful test is whether tracing and treatment can catch up before the numbers climb again.
