{"id":890996,"date":"2026-09-10T22:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890996\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:20:19","slug":"africas-top-health-body-warns-congos-ebola-outbreak-is-rapidly-spreading-beyond-epicenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890996\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa’s top health body warns Congo\u2019s Ebola outbreak is rapidly spreading beyond epicenter"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) \u2014 The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record<\/a> in eastern Congo<\/a> is rapidly spreading beyond its epicenter, Africa’s top health body said Thursday.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, new cases and deaths have declined in Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter, but risen sharply in neighboring North Kivu and Haut-Uele, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said at a weekly briefing.<\/p>\n

According to the latest government figures released on Thursday, 6,843 cases have been reported, including 3,310 deaths. Ituri province remains the hardest-hit province, with more than 5,400 cases while North Kivu has reported over 1,000 cases since the outbreak was declared in May.<\/p>\n

The outbreak in eastern Congo is spreading under extremely difficult conditions, fueled by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike<\/a> and intense population movements<\/a>. The situation is particularly concerning at displacement sites, where residents already live in extremely precarious conditions.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization has said the outbreak remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak<\/a>, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

In North Kivu, new cases more than doubled to 381 in the latest three-week period, from 165 in the earlier period, Yap Boum, Africa CDC’s head of emergency preparedness and response, said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The virus recently reached two more health zones in North Kivu, where fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels<\/a>, who control the provincial capital Goma, has complicated the response.<\/p>\n

Last month, Congo began vaccinating health and other front-line workers<\/a> with the Ervebo vaccine that was effective in past Ebola outbreaks caused by a different, more common type called Zaire.<\/p>\n

Clinical trials are underway to find a licensed vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vaccination trials started in the eastern Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele provinces, Placide Mbala Kingebeni, Africa CDC’s director for research, clinical trials and innovation, said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kingebeni said the vaccination campaign initially targeted newly affected provinces to help prevent further spread. Vaccinations in Ituri are set to start next week, he added.<\/p>\n

A key challenge is the limited supply of doses, said Kingebeni. Congo has received 70,000 doses so far<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.<\/p>\n

Jean-yves Kamale And Mark Banchereau, The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\"Health<\/p>\n

Health workers prepare to transfer the body of Abineno Justine, a 38-year-old woman who died of the Ebola virus, to a coffin ahead of her burial in Bunia, Congo, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo\/Dieudonne Dirole) – The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINSHASA, Congo (AP) \u2014 The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record in eastern Congo is rapidly spreading beyond its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5684,49,48,67439,308821,77449,273678,84,256934,76379,288929],"class_list":["post-890996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-africa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-congo","tag-eastern-congo","tag-ebola-outbreak","tag-haut-uele","tag-health","tag-ituri-province","tag-kinshasa","tag-north-kivu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}