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The World Health Organization says Congo’s Ebola outbreak is nowhere near contained, with more than 5,000 confirmed cases and over 2,300 dead, putting it above every outbreak the country has been through before and behind only one worldwide.
Getting into it: WHO’s Africa office counted 5,021 confirmed cases as of Aug. 16, scattered over six provinces and 55 health zones. Just under half the people who catch it are dying, a fatality rate of 47.4%. Africa CDC said Ebola is now “taking approximately one life every 30 minutes,” warning that without a reversal this becomes the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus opened the WHO emergency committee meeting Tuesday, saying, “We must be frank: the epidemic is far from being under control. It had a big head start, and we are still playing catch-up.” He said the virus is outrunning every Ebola outbreak that came before it, driven by insecurity, displacement, and what he called “intense population movement along roads, rivers and mining routes.” Africa CDC found that three months in, this outbreak had produced seven times more cases and five times more deaths than the first three months of the 2013-2016 West Africa epidemic, which killed more than 11,300 people.
What worries Tedros most is where people are dying. “At home, in their communities, outside treatment centres, and outside known contact lists,” he said. “Every death like that points to a chain of transmission we have not yet found.” Officials cannot tie 70 to 80% of new cases back to anyone who was already known to be sick, so nobody has a clear picture of where big pieces of this outbreak are headed.
Senator Husted stressed the risks associated with DeepSeek, warning that it is a “tool that perpetuates Communist China’s agenda—full stop. It exposes Americans’ data to our adversary’s government, lies to its users, and exploits American workers’ AI advances.” Senator Rosen echoed these concerns, calling for the need for proactive measures, saying, “As the artificial intelligence landscape continues to rapidly expand, the US must take steps to ensure Americans’ data and government systems remain protected against platforms—like DeepSeek—that are linked to our adversaries.”
The response is also short on money and people. Donors have covered roughly 60% of the $115 million WHO asked for, cases are getting caught late, the teams chasing them cannot keep up, and armed groups have operated for decades across the northern and eastern regions where the outbreak is worst and where health infrastructure barely exists. Health facilities have reported suspected transmission inside their own walls and deaths among health workers.
This is Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was identified in 1976, and the strain behind it is Bundibugyo, which has no vaccine and no approved treatment.
