The Ebola outbreak in the DRC

Cosa è cambiato

• 1Nurse killed investigating an Ebola alert
• 1Other health worker severely injured

Allora ancora aperto

• No independently verified case count, exact start date in May, specific strain identity, or location of the surge 40 kilometers away.
• Which militias control blocked villages and what funding shortfalls limit staffing and supplies.
• No Wapinda contact count, tracing-completion figure, isolation location, treatment-bed capacity, deployed-team size or specimen-transport timetable has been established.
• Whether response teams can reach the surge zone 40 kilometers from Mangualu before chains seed further.
• Whether protection for health workers and basic clinic equipment arrive before more staff are lost.
• A local update showing when the patients fell ill, how they were exposed and whether all identified contacts are being followed.

Cosa è cambiato

• 2Confirmed cases reported in Wapinda
• 1Death among the two reported patients
• 8thCongolese province reached by the outbreak
• Two confirmed cases have been reported in Wapinda, and support from the National Institute of Public Health to provincial authorities has been reported.

Allora ancora aperto

• No Wapinda contact count, tracing-completion figure, isolation location, treatment-bed capacity, deployed-team size or specimen-transport timetable has been established.
• No independently verified case count, exact start date in May, specific strain identity, or location of the surge 40 kilometers away.
• Which militias control blocked villages and what funding shortfalls limit staffing and supplies.
• Whether response teams can reach the surge zone 40 kilometers from Mangualu before chains seed further.
• Whether protection for health workers and basic clinic equipment arrive before more staff are lost.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• A local update showing when the patients fell ill, how they were exposed and whether all identified contacts are being followed.

Cosa è cambiato

• As few as 15 women a month have been delivering their babies at Masiki Health Center in Butembo, down from about 50 before the Ebola outbreak. Head nurse Liliane Adronga described the fall to Reuters: a maternity service losing patients while an infectious-disease emergency continues around it.

Allora ancora aperto

• No independently verified case count, exact start date in May, specific strain identity, or location of the surge 40 kilometers away.
• Which militias control blocked villages and what funding shortfalls limit staffing and supplies.
• Whether response teams can reach the surge zone 40 kilometers from Mangualu before chains seed further.
• Whether protection for health workers and basic clinic equipment arrive before more staff are lost.

Cosa è cambiato

• 3,000+People dead, second-largest Ebola epidemic
• ~50%Share of infected who die
• ~30Patients in Mangualu treatment center
• 6Nurses dead at main hospital
• More than 3,000 dead in a new-strain outbreak centered in Mangualu that began in May, the second-largest on record.
• No vaccine or medication exists for this strain, and almost half of those infected die.
• About 30 patients are in the Mangualu treatment center, and six nurses have died at the main hospital.

Allora ancora aperto

• No independently verified case count, exact start date in May, specific strain identity, or location of the surge 40 kilometers away.
• Which militias control blocked villages and what funding shortfalls limit staffing and supplies.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether response teams can reach the surge zone 40 kilometers from Mangualu before chains seed further.
• Whether protection for health workers and basic clinic equipment arrive before more staff are lost.

Cosa è cambiato

• Outbreak reached 60 health zones by Aug. 28, including Biena and Manguredjipa in North Kivu.
• Around Aug. 28-29, reporting cited 5,795 confirmed cases and 2,786 deaths since May.
• DRC began compassionate use of the Zaire-strain vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain in frontline workers.

Allora ancora aperto

• The true infection and death tolls amid access limits, and when trial data will establish efficacy against Bundibugyo.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether vaccination of health workers slows nosocomial spread and whether funding and supply keep pace as cases pass 6,000.

Cosa è cambiato

• First batch of 16,250 Ervebo doses arrived at N'djili Airport in Kinshasa.
• DRC requested 70,000 Ervebo doses from the global stockpile; WHO confirmed deployment.
• Plan assigns 50,000 doses to frontline and health workers and 20,000 to a Phase III cross-protection trial.
• Ervebo is licensed only for Zaire; Bundibugyo has no licensed vaccine or treatment and only lab and animal cross-protection data.
• Confirmed-case fatality reported at about 47.5 percent.
• Africa CDC estimates only 30 to 40 percent of infections have been detected.

Allora ancora aperto

• No verified verbatim quotations from WHO or DRC officials in provided sources; exact wording of authorizations is missing.
• Whether Ervebo provides any meaningful human protection against Bundibugyo.
• Exact current case and death totals amid rapidly moving and disagreeing snapshots.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether compassionate use reaches frontline workers fast enough to slow nosocomial spread.
• When and where the 20,000-dose Phase III trial enrolls and when it reports any cross-protection signal.
• Whether detection improves or the undetected majority keeps driving growth.

Cosa è cambiato

• More than 2,500 dead by late August, about half in the prior 20 days.
• About 5,200 to 5,515 infections tallied at about 100 days, with true infections likely far higher.
• Deaths passed 3,000 by September 2 in government figures.
• Response funding was nearing exhaustion in late August amid misinformation strains.

Allora ancora aperto

• No verified total infection count, fatality rate, or detailed funding timeline has been made public.
• No confirmed end to exponential growth; AP and WHO warnings say it had not peaked.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether emergency funding arrives before field activities shrink.
• Whether detection rises above the estimated 30 to 40% and the death pace slows.

Cosa è cambiato

• Outbreak reached 5,000 cases per government data reported August 19, 2026.
• Deaths were reported at 2,378 as cases crossed 5,000.
• 12 Red Cross volunteers injured and an ambulance burned across 11 incidents in 100 days.

Allora ancora aperto

• Whether specific mid-August attacks in Aru and Mambasa territory occurred as described in early video narration, with exact numbers of ambulances, injuries, killings and abductions.
• The full extent of geographic spread beyond Ituri and the true infection toll given delayed detection and limited access.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether the second WHO emergency committee review unlocks vaccines, treatments and funding fast enough to match transmission.
• Whether protection and payment for front-line health workers stabilizes staffing at treatment centres.

Cosa è cambiato

• Outbreak has killed 2,325 people with 4,945 confirmed cases as of Aug. 17.
• It is now the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DRC history, passing the 2,299 deaths of 2018-2020.
• It remains the world's second-largest Ebola outbreak behind the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic that killed 11,325.
• It has reached a sixth province bordering the Central African Republic.
• Delayed detection, overwhelmed surveillance, conflict and lack of Bundibugyo vaccines and treatments drove spread five times faster than prior Congo outbreaks.

Allora ancora aperto

• No independently confirmed figures for Ituri's share of cases and deaths, treatment bed capacity, or contact-tracing coverage.
• No verified endpoint for geographic spread or final fatality rate as case counts continue to move.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether surveillance, isolation capacity and cross-border coordination can scale fast enough to bend the daily case count.
• Whether WHO's warning of surpassing the West Africa toll becomes a planning scenario or a revised forecast.

Cosa è cambiato

• More than 4,600 confirmed cases and at least 2,100 deaths reported by Aug. 14, at almost three times the pace of the outbreak a decade earlier.
• By Aug. 17, 2,325 people killed, making it the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DRC history.
• No approved treatment or vaccine exists for this rare Bundibugyo strain.
• Health workers were struggling by Aug. 15 as Ebola outpaced contact tracing in Ituri.

Allora ancora aperto

• The precise current chain of transmission across all six provinces and whether urban transmission has begun in Kinshasa.
• Whether experimental vaccines, treatments, or scaled diagnostic and staffing support will arrive in time to change the trajectory.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether contact tracing in Ituri and other eastern provinces can catch up to the virus before the next provincial jump.
• Whether the death toll continues toward the West Africa benchmark of more than 11,000 deaths.

Cosa è cambiato

• Bundibugyo virus circulated since mid-February, declared in mid-May.
• More than 2,000 dead by Aug. 11, fastest growth on record.
• Early genomes point to fresh animal spillover, not a known chain.
• No approved Bundibugyo-specific treatment or vaccine.

Allora ancora aperto

• No verified total for confirmed cases in the early undetected months.
• No verified trial design, enrollment, or results for cross-strain vaccine use.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether expanded sequencing sharpens the February origin and transmission map.
• Whether surveillance and care can catch contacts missed in spring.

Cosa è cambiato

• 4,053 confirmed cases and 1,850 deaths as of Aug 5 across 53 zones in five provinces.
• True infections estimated at 3 to 4 times confirmed, with 55 to 60 percent unidentified.

Allora ancora aperto

• No verified full scope of community transmission outside Ituri's 86.9 percent share.
• No confirmed outcome yet for the 300-plus riverboat contacts screened near Kinshasa.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether Ervebo trial approval and massive scale-up arrive before treatment beds run out.
• Whether the Ituri pay strike is settled and surveillance restores the missing case fraction.

Cosa è cambiato

• Wiza Bondele works on prevention and control at an Ebola treatment hospital in Ituri and has been unpaid since mid-May 2026.
• Health workers struck over unpaid wages by July 8, when deaths were near 600.
• Workers protested outside the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia on July 25 after the prime minister's visit.
• WHO chief Tedros said in Kinshasa on Aug. 5 that the outbreak was outpacing the response.
• Deaths had surpassed 1,800 by Aug. 6, with spread described as alarming and reaching remote areas.

Allora ancora aperto

• No verified total confirmed case count is visible in the provided excerpts.
• No verified official explanation, named ministerial commitment, or confirmed partial-payment timeline is visible in the provided excerpts.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether payroll is restored before more frontline prevention staff quit or are forced out by exhaustion.
• Whether remote-area transmission can be tracked and contained while the workforce remains unpaid.

Cosa è cambiato

• This is the largest-ever Ebola outbreak in the DRC.
• It is the world's second-largest epidemic after the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak.
• The Bunia centre has 100 beds and around 300 health workers.

Allora ancora aperto

• No public breakdown of confirmed versus suspected beds has been specified in the sources.
• No source names the virus strain or describes vaccine and treatment availability.
• Whether the centre filled on opening day remains unreported.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether the scale-up outpaces doubling in hotspots in the coming weeks.
• Whether spread across five provinces reaches Kinshasa.

Cosa sapevamo all'inizio

• DRC Ebola outbreak declared May 15, 2026; driven by Bundibugyo virus with no approved vaccines or treatments; combined DRC-Uganda death toll past 1,000 by July 22.
• WHO can trace only about 82% of confirmed cases; more than 80% of new infections come from unknown transmission chains.
• At least 180 children killed, per Save the Children; 737 patients in isolation or admitted as of July 22.

Allora ancora aperto

• Whether Uganda has now gone three full weeks without a new case or discharged its last patient.
• Whether Dr. Jean Kaseya has formally written to US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Uganda travel restrictions.

Cosa avevamo detto di seguire

• Whether WHO's early signals of curve stabilisation hold into late July and August, or whether unknown transmission chains push the toll higher.
• Whether the cross-border component of the combined death count forces a coordinated DRC-Uganda vaccination research push for the Bundibugyo strain.