Madar (Kinshasa) - Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have surpassed 10,000, reaching 10,060 cases and 4,887 deaths, according to government data released on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, Al Jazeera English reported, citing AP and Reuters.
According to data from the DRC's Ministry of Public Health, it is the fastest-growing and deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country's history, with nearly half of those confirmed to have the virus having died. With cases also mounting outside the DRC, the wider outbreak is the second-largest and second-deadliest on record, after the 2014-2016 West African epidemic, which saw 28,600 infected and more than 11,000 dead.
About 80 percent of new cases are coming from outside the chains of transmission monitored by health authorities, while the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says at least 95 percent of cases must come from known contacts for the outbreak to be considered under control.
Declared on May 15, the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare strain for which no vaccine or treatment has been approved. The World Health Organization announced on Friday that the first clinical trial for a vaccine had been rolled out. Cases have been recorded in 66 health zones across eight provinces, up from three in the first days.
Responders say some treatment centres are overwhelmed while remote and newly affected areas are short of medical supplies and health workers, and at least half of those who died were never admitted for treatment. The outbreak has also disrupted routine care such as childhood vaccinations, and maternal deaths doubled in some provinces soon after it was declared, according to the same source.
Outside the DRC, Kenya's tally has risen to nine confirmed cases, two of them fatal, while the patient diagnosed in Nigeria was evacuated to Switzerland for treatment on Monday. Uganda says it has no active infections after recording 20 cases and two deaths over the summer.
