New suspected cases of Ebola have been reported in parts of Congo that were previously unaffected, the government said on Thursday (July 9, 2026), as the death toll in the country’s latest Ebola outbreak reached 600.

According to the Congolese Health Ministry, suspected cases have now been recorded in the provinces of Tshopo and Haut-Uele, signaling the continued spread of the disease beyond the epicenter in Ituri.

A Congolese government report, published late on Wednesday, said two new cases were suspected in Kisangani, in Tshopo province. The Minister did not say how many cases were suspected in Haut-Uele. The total number of confirmed cases across the country has now reached 1,759.

The report said one of the two suspected cases in Tshopo was linked to the Nia-Nia health zone in Ituri province, where the first cases were reported, while the other case “has no apparent geographical connection to known outbreaks.” Authorities were investigating.

Fastest-growing Ebola outbreak

The Africa Centre for Disease Control said on Thursday that the latest outbreak is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on the continent.

The Congolese authorities declared a fresh Ebola outbreak on May 15, after the disease had been transmitting for weeks without official detection, according to the World Health Organization. The latest outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment.

Last week, clinical trials for treatment began after researchers launched a highly anticipated study in the hope of fighting the virus.

Efforts to contain the virus have also been hampered by a funding gap, attacks on health centers, and an ongoing conflict in eastern Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Congolese authorities have reported one of the highest daily increases in Ebola cases in a month-old outbreak as the virus spreads quickly in a remote region whose shifting population challenges efforts to find those exposed.

Congo’s Ministry of Health on Sunday (June 14, 2026) said 72 new cases were reported in a 24-hour period, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 782. Those include 181 confirmed deaths, with 29 new ones.

“One month on, the Ebola disease outbreak is outpacing the response effort,” Kate White, emergency medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Congo, said Monday (June 15, 2026). “No one knows the true scale or exactly where the disease is spreading in Congo.”

The medical charity said treatment centers in the epicenter of the outbreak are overwhelmed, many patients arrive in advanced stages of illness and most were not identified as contacts of infected people before seeking care.

Congo’s Health Ministry said that while the numbers show the outbreak is spreading rapidly, it also reflects more active surveillance. “Community members are reporting suspected cases, and response teams are investigating them,” it said on X.

The number of cases in what could become history’s worst Ebola outbreak is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it is suspected to have begun.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which was not tested for in the early days. The more common Zaire virus, which now has a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

The outbreak is concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for more than 90% of the cases. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread across the border to Uganda.

Congo said the contact tracing coverage rate is 56%, a sharp decrease from last week, as authorities hurry to find people who may have been exposed.

There was no immediate explanation for the drop. Congolese health authorities previously said contact tracing has been hampered by community resistance in some areas and by the rapid expansion of the outbreak into new health zones, increasing the workload for surveillance teams.

Nearly a million people have been displaced by years of conflict in Ituri, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.

Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of miners who regularly move among remote sites in the mineral-rich region.

The health ministry said Sunday 40 people have recovered since the start of the outbreak, and the current fatality rate of the outbreak is 23%.

Life goes on, including nightlife, as the population adjusts.

The World Health Organization said Sunday it is intensifying testing and contact tracing and treatment. Tons of supplies from the WHO have arrived in Congo.

And Africa’s top health body said it is deploying technical expertise and supporting laboratory systems, case finding and community engagement efforts to accelerate the response.

“We remain committed to supporting affected countries until transmission is stopped. We call on partners and donors to urgently mobilize resources to strengthen the response and save lives,” said the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya.

Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed Saturday (June 6, 2026), amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic.

In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organisation tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago.

In neighbouring Uganda, meanwhile, it counted 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths. The total of 471 cases and 84 deaths, based on numbers reported by the DRC and Ugandan governments, marked a hike of 100 cases and 20 deaths from a day earlier.

The increase came amid warnings that the outbreak, which the WHO has declared an international public health emergency, could eventually swell to become the largest on record.

A top official at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday (June 5) that models indicated that without strong public health interventions, the current outbreak risked rivalling the scale of the 2014 West Africa epidemic, which saw over 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.

“That scale is possible,” said Jason Asher, director of CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, during a press briefing. Ebola, which is spread through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The current outbreak was declared on May 15 in northeastern DR Congo, but the virus is believed to have spread under the radar for some time beforehand. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak.

The WHO and the African CDC on Friday (June 5) launched a $518-million plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months, focusing among other things, on boosting surveillance, laboratory testing and infection prevention.

“The outbreak is moving fast, and we are still playing catch-up,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

“We need to stop the outbreak where it is, support countries that are responding today, and ensure that neighbouring countries are ready to detect and act quickly if cases appear,” he said. “This is a serious outbreak and its one we know how to stop but we need to move fast and together.”

The ​World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resulted in 321 confirmed cases, along with 116 suspected cases, marking a large drop in the number of suspected cases as hundreds were ruled ‌out after investigation.

The agency said on Tuesday (June 2, 2026) there had been 48 deaths and six people have recovered in Congo. ‌The Congolese authorities first put out the new case numbers on ‌Monday (June 1, 2026).

WHO declares international emergency as Ebola outbreak kills more than 80 in DR Congo

In ⁠Uganda there have been nine confirmed cases and one associated ⁠death, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.

The WHO said on Friday (May 29, 2026) that there were 906 suspected cases of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic ​of Congo, including 223 suspected deaths ‌that were being investigated. Later Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an Financial Times (FT) op-ed published on Sunday (May 31, 2026) that more than 1,100 suspected cases were being investigated.

When asked ‌why the latest figures showed a significantly lower number of ​suspected cases, Mr. Lindmeier said the data suggested hundreds of cases had been discounted. “They have been cleared out and have ⁠either other diseases or have just had fever and nothing else,” Mr.  Lindmeier said, adding that the numbers would fluctuate over time as people get ‌tested. “A suspected case includes anyone who is picked up by surveillance or who presents with symptoms at a health centre,” he added. Confirmed cases include only those who have tested positive for Ebola Bundibugyo.

Testing has been a challenge in this outbreak as initially the more common tests used for Ebola did not detect the Bundibugyo strain, for which ‌there is no approved vaccine, and capacity has been limited.

The U.S. Centers for Disease ​Control and Prevention’s website also listed 116 suspected cases, and added: “On May 29, the DRC Ministry of Health updated their ⁠total suspect case count to remove suspected cases that have been ruled ⁠out after investigation and suspected deaths that are pending the results of ongoing investigation.”

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention announced ‌the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak, on May 15, and the WHO swiftly declared ​it a public health emergency of international concern.