Congo Ebola outbreak: Congo’s health authorities have declared a new Ebola outbreak in southern Kasai province after laboratory tests at the National Institute for Biomedical Research confirmed Zaire ebolavirus.
The Health Ministry said the outbreak began with a 34-year-old pregnant woman from Boulapé, Mweka territory, who was admitted last month with hemorrhagic fever symptoms and died hours later of multiple organ failure. Officials have recorded 28 people with symptoms and 15 suspected deaths, including four health workers, putting the preliminary case fatality rate at 53.6%. It is the country’s 16th Ebola outbreak.
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The World Health Organization warned infections are likely to climb. “Case numbers are likely to increase as the transmission is ongoing,” the agency said, adding that response and local teams are tracing contacts to speed care and protection.
Local health leaders cautioned that population movements are complicating surveillance. “Many residents have fled their villages, making it difficult to trace and monitor those who fall ill,” said Dr. Jean Paul Mikobi, chief medical officer of the Boulapé health zone. Dr. Amitié Bukidi, head of the Mweka health zone, said all four health zones in the territory have reported suspected cases and cited urgent shortages of personnel, protective gear and medicines.
Authorities noted the outbreak hits as fighting intensifies in the east and an already fragile health system faces added strain from US aid cuts. Health officials urged strict prevention measures, including hand washing and minimising close contact. Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids, such as blood, vomit or semen, or contaminated materials like bedding and clothing. The disease causes acute fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain, and, at times, internal and external bleeding.
WHO said experts have been deployed to Kasai to bolster surveillance, treatment and infection prevention, alongside deliveries of protective equipment, mobile laboratory supplies and medicines. To curb transmission, Mweka territory administrator François Mingambengele announced partial confinement measures, including suspension of classes and graduation ceremonies and closure of weekly markets.
Congo’s previous outbreak, in Equateur province in 2022, killed six people. A larger eastern outbreak from 2018 to 2020 left more than 1,000 dead, the highest toll after the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic, which killed over 11,000 in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
