Health workers fight Ebola in Congo.Image: keystone
June 22, 2026, 9:40 a.mJune 22, 2026, 9:50 a.m
Just over a month after the Ebola outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the number of confirmed cases has risen to more than 1,000.
According to the Ministry of Information in Kinshasa, of the 1,003 confirmed Ebola patients in three provinces of the country, a total of 254 have died. The ministry also announced that 100 people are considered to have recovered. It was said that 365 patients are currently being treated in hospitals and isolation wards. The fatality rate is currently around 25 percent.
Since the outbreak was announced in May, 19 people in neighboring Uganda had contracted Ebola and two of them had died from the highly dangerous disease. The cases were linked to the outbreak in Congo.
According to the information, 58 percent of the contacts of confirmed cases are currently being traced. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in order to stop the spread of the disease, it is necessary to identify and monitor 90 percent of all people who have been in contact with an infected person. The African health authority Africa CDC had already expressed concern several times about the high number of unknown and untraceable contacts.
Ebola fever is a life-threatening disease. The virus is transmitted through physical contact and contact with body fluids. The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain, also because there is currently neither a vaccine nor a special therapy for the Ebola pathogen of the Bundibugyo type. (sda/dpa)