The Africa Centers for Disease Control warned Thursday that Ebola continues to spread across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with infections now confirmed in a seventh province and cases climbing in regions far from the outbreak’s origin point.
According to Breitbart News, the DRC government reported a total of 6,843 confirmed cases since the outbreak was declared in May, along with 3,310 deaths. More than 5,400 of those cases have come from Ituri province, where the outbreak is believed to have started, but the geography of the epidemic is shifting.
Cases Shift Toward North Kivu
North Kivu has now recorded over 1,000 cases, and Africa CDC says new infections there have more than doubled over the past three weeks. Some of those cases appeared in two health zones that had never previously reported Ebola, suggesting the virus is finding new footholds rather than fading in place.
The decline in Ituri, in other words, has not translated into a nationwide slowdown. Instead, the outbreak appears to be redistributing itself across a wider stretch of the country — a pattern that makes containment considerably harder.
A Death in Sud-Ubangi, and a Perilous Journey
The most alarming development came Thursday, when a 23-year-old man died of Ebola in Gwaka, a town in the northwestern province of Sud-Ubangi. The province had never reported a single case before. With his death, Sud-Ubangi became the seventh DRC province to record infections — and the first in the western part of the country.
How the virus got there is a contact tracer’s worst case. According to Sud-Ubangi lawmaker and former health minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani, the victim originally came from South Kivu province. He traveled for roughly three weeks through Rwanda and Uganda before arriving in Ituri. From there he moved through Tshopo and Mongala provinces, eventually reaching Sud-Ubangi, where he fell severely ill and died. His route included a boat trip down the Congo River.
That itinerary leaves health officials with two difficult questions: where exactly the man contracted the virus, and who else he encountered along the way. The acting governor of Sud-Ubangi, Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe, said Friday that 38 people identified as contacts of the patient have been placed in quarantine.
Sud-Ubangi’s location adds another layer of concern. The province borders the Central African Republic. The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak could cross into the CAR and into Sudan, turning a national emergency into a regional one.
WHO Cites ‘Ongoing Geographical Expansion’
In its latest Ebola Bundibugyo update Thursday, the WHO pointed to “evidence of ongoing geographical expansion and sustained increase in cases in some health zones.” The agency also flagged that “delayed detection of cases” remains a persistent obstacle to containment.
The WHO described the setting in stark terms, noting the outbreak is unfolding “within a complex humanitarian setting characterized by insecurity, armed conflict, and widespread population displacement.” The most dangerous areas, the agency said, struggle with overcrowding, limited water and sanitation services, and restricted access to healthcare in mining communities. Informal settlements and camps for internally displaced people, the update added, further undermine early case detection and infection prevention measures.
A Vaccine Gamble Against a Different Strain
The DRC began administering a vaccine called Ervebo to healthcare workers and frontline responders in August. Ervebo is a single-dose vaccine developed for the more common Zaire strain of Ebola — not the Bundibugyo strain driving this outbreak.
The United Nations sent 70,000 doses to the DRC in the hope that it might offer some cross-protection. Of those, 20,000 were designated for frontline health workers, while the remainder are part of a clinical trial testing whether Ervebo has any effectiveness against Bundibugyo. The vaccine is not known for severe side effects, so officials concluded there was little to lose by trying it.
“Early laboratory and animal data suggest it may provide some protection. Thus, the clinical trial is expected to provide important new evidence, which is essential for policymakers to inform future use of the Ervebo vaccine,” the WHO said in August.
At least five vaccine candidates aimed specifically at the Bundibugyo strain are currently in testing. The most recent addition comes from the Minapharm Group, headquartered in Egypt. That product was designed by ProBioGen, a Berlin-based specialist unit whose previous vaccines have proven effective against smallpox, monkeypox, and Ebola Zaire.
For now, the picture remains unsettled. Cases are falling in the outbreak’s original epicenter even as they accelerate elsewhere, a new province in the west is confronting its first infection, and the border with the Central African Republic sits just beyond the latest cluster. Health officials are watching to see whether the virus settles into its new territories or keeps moving.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/health/2026/09/11/africa-cdc-warns-ebola-spreading-in-congo/