{"id":485087,"date":"2026-06-05T20:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485087\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T20:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:28:08","slug":"congo-warns-of-rapid-community-spread-of-ebola-as-71-new-cases-confirmed-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485087\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo warns of \u2018rapid\u2019 community spread of Ebola as 71 new cases confirmed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/democratic-republic-of-congo\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/democratic-republic-of-congo\/\">Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> said \u200con Friday that 71 new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ebola-disease\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ebola-disease\/\">Ebola<\/a> cases were confirmed in a 24-hour period and \u200cwarned of rapid community transmission of the deadly disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The new data, included in a \u200bdaily situation report published by the health ministry, bring the total number of confirmed cases to 452 since the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola was \u200bannounced on May 15th. There have been 82 confirmed deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The cases remain heavily concentrated \u2060in Ituri province in northeast Congo, a remote part of the \u200ccountry \u200cwith \u200bpoor health infrastructure and widespread insecurity due to fighting by armed groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The daily total of 71 new cases \u2013 \u206065 in Ituri \u200bprovince and six in North Kivu province \u2013 \u200bis one of the biggest during the outbreak, the 17th in \u200cCongo\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe number of confirmed cases \u200brecorded in the two provinces demonstrates rapid and continuous community transmission,\u201d \u2060the situation report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/africa\/2026\/05\/31\/who-calls-for-ceasefire-and-greater-cooperation-to-contain-ebola-outbreak-in-drc\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WHO calls for ceasefire and greater cooperation to contain Ebola outbreak in DRCOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cases have \u2060been confirmed \u200bin 17 of Ituri\u2019s 36 health zones, as well as in seven health zones in North Kivu and one health zone in South Kivu, the report said. There are also cases in neighbouring Uganda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Earlier on Friday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/world-health-organisation\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/world-health-organisation\/\">World Health Organisation<\/a> director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced a $518 million six-month plan to fight Ebola, calling \u200cfor money and political \u2060commitment to halt the spread of an outbreak that is already the fourth-biggest on record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The strategy aims to help \u200cCongo and neighbouring Uganda contain their outbreaks, while assisting other countries to prepare for possible \u200bcases through measures including enhanced border screening, the \u200bWHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall  b-it-article-body__copyright\">(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic Republic of Congo said \u200con Friday that 71 new Ebola cases were confirmed in a 24-hour period&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8044,196728,103,61,60,31614],"class_list":["post-485087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-ebola-disease","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}