DRC Ebola death toll hits record 2,325 as WHO shifts containment strategy

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 AUGUST 2026 —

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has killed 2,325 people, making it the country's deadliest on record, according to government data released on Monday.

The death toll surpassed the 2,299 fatalities recorded during the 2018 to 2020 epidemic, with the case fatality rate reaching 46 per cent, official figures showed. World Health Organization (WHO) incident manager Dr Thierno Baldé said confirmed infections have passed 5,000 and spread to a sixth province, Bas-Uele.

The UN health agency is restructuring its response to recruit local motorbike riders as surveillance officers, Baldé told reporters in Geneva. Riders frequently transport patients and corpses across the epicentre in Bunia, leaving them exposed to infection while positioning them to alert response teams to suspected cases.

The operational shift follows regular community hostility, including an attack on an ambulance on Monday. WHO tracking data showed 18 attacks on healthcare facilities, transport and personnel since Jan 1, resulting in six deaths. To curb transmission, the agency plans to deploy 100 epidemiologists and 500 community health workers, supported by 400 treatment beds added over the past two weeks.

There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, which Congolese authorities declared on May 15. However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said two candidate vaccines have entered human clinical trials, while a third candidate has been proposed for phase III testing.