Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a new Ebola outbreak in Kasai Province. According to the WHO, dozens of cases have been confirmed with at least 15 deaths. The organization warns that the number of infections could rise and is working with national authorities to roll out emergency response measures.
The World Health Organization reported that authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared an Ebola outbreak in one of the country’s provinces. Official data confirm 28 suspected cases and at least 15 deaths.
Ebola has already claimed thousands of lives across 15 outbreaks in the DRC since the virus was first identified in 1976. The latest presence of the disease was confirmed on Wednesday after laboratory tests conducted by Congolese specialists. Among the dead are health workers.
The current outbreak has been recorded in Kasai Province in the south of the country, bordering Angola. Ebola was previously reported there in 2008. The last outbreak in the DRC occurred in 2022 in the northwestern Équateur Province and lasted around two months.
According to the WHO, the number of infections is likely to rise as the virus continues to spread. A national rapid response team has been deployed to Kasai, joined by WHO representatives.
“We are acting decisively to stop the spread of the virus as quickly as possible and protect the population,” said Dr. Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa. He noted that the organization is relying on Congo’s accumulated experience in combating viral epidemics and, together with national authorities, is scaling up key response measures to bring the outbreak under control as swiftly as possible.
The WHO also noted that the country still has a “stockpile of medicines” left over from previous epidemics. In addition, 2,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine are being sent from the capital, Kinshasa, to Kasai Province to protect health workers and help prevent further spread of the disease.
Ebola claims the lives of roughly half of those infected. It is marked by high fever, severe fatigue, vomiting, and in some cases bleeding from the eyes and nose. Billions of dollars have already been spent fighting the virus in Africa, yet outbreaks often erupt in conflict zones where medical workers frequently face deep mistrust.
Kasai Province is part of the wider region of the same name, which, according to the UN Refugee Agency, experienced ethnic violence in 2017 that displaced more than one million people.