The Ebola epidemic racing through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is spreading faster and proving more virulent than efforts to contain it, global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Wednesday.
The current outbreak in the DRC and nearby Uganda was declared a global health emergency back in May.
The World Health Organization (W.H.O) has already warned the ongoing situation in Africa was much larger than official figures suggest and is being driven partly by population movements and delays in treatment.
Reuters reports the number of confirmed Ebola cases had tripled in less than five weeks to 1,926, including 702 deaths, as of Sunday, official data showed with that number now forecast to having being passed on its climb upwards.
It is the third-largest and the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, according to MSF.
“Every delay costs lives. We are still chasing the outbreak instead of staying ahead of it,” said MSF’s emergency programme manager, Trish Newport, urging more coordinated international action to improve Ebola care, per the Reuters report.
Around 15,000 people have died from the virus in African countries over the past 50 years.
Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP via Getty Images)
DR Congo’s deadliest outbreak was between 2018 and 2020, during which nearly 2,300 people died.
Meanwhile travel rules are being implemented around the world to prevent the virus from crossing borders.
The U.S. on Monday said its citizens in the DR Congo would not be able to return home on commercial flights and would need to spend at least 21 days in a third country.
Non-citizens who recently went to the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan would not be allowed to travel to the U.S. at all, Reuters reported, citing a White House official.