At least 223 “suspicious deaths” have been recorded by the epidemic of ebola declared on May 15 in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reported the World Health Organization (WHO).
In a report published by its regional office for Africathe WHO stated that, until May 24, the DRC “had reported 906 suspected cases, including 223 suspicious deaths”.
Of 295 samples analyzed, 105 cases, including 10 deaths, were confirmed in the laboratory in thirteen health zones in the provinces of Ituri (seven), North Kivu (five) and South Kivu (a).
The epicenter of the outbreak continues to be Ituri, which concentrates 89.5% of confirmed cases.
Suspected cases are also mainly concentrated in Ituri, where together they represent 90.1% of these infections and 91.9% of suspicious deaths.
To date, 2,231 contacts have been identified in the DRC, although contact tracing remains a “great challenge”, since, until May 23, 2026, only 19.3% of contacts had been attended to in the previous 24 hours.
“Limitations include insecurity, movement restrictions, high mobility of the population linked to mining communities and difficulties in contact tracing in dispersed and cross-border populations, as well as a shortage of trained contact tracers”explained the WHO.
The first geospatial analyzes of the outbreak in eastern Congo have identified “mobility corridors linked to mining” in Ituri, a province rich in gold, as possible sources of “early contagion and silent transmission”according to the UN agency.
Security incidents against health centers and community resistance have recently become “important operational challenges” in Ituri, with three recent attacks reported in the health zones of Mongbwalu and Rwampara.
These incidents – he stressed – reflect “community fear and anxiety, persistent mistrust, misinformation and resistance to safe burial practices, creating additional risks of undetected transmission and disrupting outbreak control efforts”.
In UgandaAs the health authorities of that country already pointed out this Monday, the number of confirmed cases – all in the capital, Kampala – increased from two to seven, while the number of confirmed deaths remains at one (a Congolese citizen who is considered an imported contagion).
To date, 311 contacts have been identified for follow-up in Uganda.
This epidemic is also complex due to the lack of vaccines and approved treatments for the disease. Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which characterizes the outbreak and whose fatality rate ranges between 30% and 50%, according to the WHO.
The virus probably began circulating in Ituri about two months before the outbreak was declared, according to the WHO, which on May 17 described the epidemic as “public health emergency of international concern”.
Last Friday, the WHO raised from “high” to “very high“the risk from the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda, while the risk remains”high” at the level of the region of Sub-Saharan Africa and “low” on a global scale.
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Ten African countries are in “high risk” from being affected by the epidemic in the DRC and Uganda, sharing a border with those two nations.
This is the 17th outbreak recorded in the DRC since the virus was first detected in 1976.
The virus of Ebola It is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of infected people or animals and causes severe hemorrhagic fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and internal bleeding.
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