{"id":620719,"date":"2026-09-10T20:42:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620719\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T20:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:42:24","slug":"congos-ebola-outbreak-rapidly-spreading-beyond-epicenter-health-body-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620719\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo\u2019s Ebola outbreak rapidly spreading beyond epicenter, health body warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINSHASA, Congo — The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record<\/a> in eastern Congo<\/a> is rapidly spreading beyond its epicenter, Africa\u2019s top health body said Thursday.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, new cases and deaths have declined in Ituri province, the outbreak\u2019s 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\u2019 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINSHASA, Congo — The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record in eastern Congo is rapidly spreading beyond its epicenter,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8045,4935,1595,103,61,15575,60,371,268],"class_list":["post-620719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-disease-outbreaks","tag-ebola-virus","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-immunizations","tag-ireland","tag-medication","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620719","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=620719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}