Ebola is spreading faster in eastern Congo than it can be tracked, as deaths pass 700

npr ^ | July 15, 2026

[BenLurkin]

Eighty percent of new Ebola cases in eastern Congo are emerging from unknown chains of transmission, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, a sign the outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can track despite an expanding response.

Congo has been battling an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola since May, with no approved treatment or vaccine. The Africa Centres for Disease Control says it is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on the continent.

"Perhaps the most alarming finding is that many of the newly reported deaths are people who died in their communities without ever reaching a health facility and without receiving care," Chikwe Ihekweazu said after returning from Bunia, in Ituri province, one of the worst-hit cities. "And as of today, 80% of new cases are outside our contact lists and so are coming to us from unknown chains of transmission."

The outbreak, Ihekweazu said, "continues to outpace the response efforts."

As of Monday, at least 1,926 people have been infected, of whom 702 have died, in three provinces in Congo from the rare Bundibugyo virus, Congolese authorities said. Cases have also been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.

[mdmathis6]

I wonder after it passes what remains are intact families with parents who don’t practise sex out side of their marriages. Perhaps IV drug abuse goes ways down and homosexuals have all be ut disappeared...I mean those are primary sources of contact with the disease...yes I hear bush meat can get things going but the numbers being affected suggest much interpersonal contact. I do hear that body washing by relatives of their dead kin, can also spread the disease.