Ebola deaths top 1,700 in eastern Congo

Healthcare Ebola deaths top 1,700 in eastern Congo Comments: by Tara Suter - 08/04/26 8:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Tara Suter - 08/04/26 8:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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New data suggests the death toll of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has topped 1,700, with health officials struggling to track the disease and identify how the outbreak began.

As of Tuesday, the virus has killed 1,707 out of a total 3,802 cases, the Associated Press reported — citing a government update.

Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said the government is still unable to predict when the outbreak will peak, according to the AP. He said that contact tracing — tracking those who are infected after being around a person with a confirmed case of Ebola — is “not working,” making it difficult to fully measure the outbreak’s trajectory.

The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo first declared the outbreak on May 15. In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it had increased its efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak, which had spread throughout Congo and Uganda.

“Elevating the response level reflects the urgency, scale, and complexity of the outbreak, and allows CDC to bring additional resources to support the coordination and operational needs of our response,” Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incidence manager, said at the time.

In response to the Ebola outbreak, Pillai also said the CDC would adjust staffing levels based on its spread, adding that agency leadership was taking its response seriously.

Licensed vaccines or approved therapeutics targeting the specific strain of Ebola impacting eastern Congo do not exist, according to The World Health Organization’s (WHO) African Region.

This Ebola strain — originating from the Bundibugyo virus — has no known treatment, according to WHO African Region’s website. The AP reported that several clinical trials for treating Bundibugyo virus disease are currently underway, including drug trials and two distinct vaccine trials.

While it continues to track the spread of Ebola in eastern Congo, the WHO’s Africa Region is also “supporting accelerated research and development efforts to evaluate candidate vaccines and investigational therapeutics,” its website states.

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