DRC Ebola Outbreak Tops 6,000 Cases as Death Toll Nears 3,000; WHO Warns It Remains Uncontrolled

Congolese authorities said Monday, 31 August 2026, that the world's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has topped 6,000 cases, reporting 6,041 confirmed cases and 2,911 deaths (crude CFR ~48%), with more than 1,360 recoveries — a development authorities called 'encouraging' even as the epidemic keeps accelerating. The outbreak, caused by Bundibugyo virus and declared 15 May 2026, has spread from three health zones to nearly 60 across six provinces, with most new cases occurring in communities outside the network of monitored contacts rather than among traced contacts. WHO said the outbreak remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic — the deadliest on record at more than 11,000 deaths — unless transmission slows. The response continues to be hampered by an ongoing health workers' strike over unpaid wages, insecurity (including a machete attack on a response team near Mambasa on 29 August), and displacement, even as Congo began distributing the Ervebo vaccine to frontline and health workers the previous week under a compassionate-use framework, since Ervebo is licensed against Zaire ebolavirus rather than the Bundibugyo strain driving this outbreak.