{"id":612232,"date":"2026-07-30T19:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612232\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T19:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:55:13","slug":"congos-ebola-death-toll-passes-1500-as-it-struggles-to-halt-spread-ebola-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612232\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo\u2019s Ebola death toll passes 1,500 as it struggles to halt spread | Ebola News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">There\u2019s still no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus as the country struggles for control in infected areas.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"avatar\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/author\/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785441313_806_2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg\"   aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Published On 30 Jul 202630 Jul 2026<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/tag\/ebola\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ebola<\/a> outbreak in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/where\/democratic-republic-of-the-congo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/a> (DRC) has killed more than 1,500 people, as the spread of the virus continues to outpace response efforts, new statistics have revealed.<\/p>\n<p>DRC has now recorded 3,442 cases of the virus and 1,521 deaths, a government update said on Thursday. The data marks a 50 percent increase in the death toll over the past week, with authorities continuing to struggle to rein in the outbreak in the east of the country, where decades of conflict with rebel groups have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/16\/drc-and-m23-rebels-eye-peace-monitoring-agreement-in-switzerland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">left government control and infrastructure lax or absent<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said that the sharp rise since last week partly reflects a backlog of cases and deaths that had not yet been confirmed or recorded.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of a proven vaccine for Bundibugyo, which is the rarest of the four variants of Ebola known to affect humans, and the fact the epidemic is unfolding in an area of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/2\/21\/a-guide-to-the-decades-long-conflict-in-dr-congo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">active hostilities<\/a> between armed groups, producing a shortage of public health resources, has helped to allow the virus to spread \u201clike wildfire\u201d, a public health consultant who helped establish Africa CDC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/25\/ebola-deaths-in-drc-surge-past-1300-as-virus-spreading-like-a-wildfire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> Al Jazeera earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Africa CDC added that delays in contact tracing, difficulties accessing affected areas, and mistrust from communities have hindered an effective response.<\/p>\n<p>The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo\u2019s remote Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of cases, but five other provinces have confirmed cases, including one of the country\u2019s largest cities, Kisangani.<\/p>\n<p>Neighbouring Uganda <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/28\/uganda-declares-end-to-ebola-outbreak\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">declared itself free of Ebola<\/a> on Tuesday following the discharge of the country\u2019s last patient in mid-June.<\/p>\n<p>Africa CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya said 63 percent of confirmed deaths in the last two weeks occurred outside treatment centres.<\/p>\n<p>This is largely due to the \u201cunsafe handling of infected bodies\u201d by residents, including touching the remains of the deceased, whose bodies remain highly infectious.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, some healthcare workers in Ituri went <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/13\/staff-at-congo-ebola-centre-strike-as-virus-continues-spreading\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on strike<\/a> over unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions, which has also impeded efforts to hold back the disease\u2019s rapid spread.<\/p>\n<p>In Ituri\u2019s Nyakunde health zone, international partners supporting the Ebola response had to temporarily relocate after a July 15 attack on a hospital and a treatment centre, prompted by a patient\u2019s death. Officials said this disrupted surveillance, contact tracing and supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the accelerated death toll in DRC, the World Health Organization has said the risk of a global spread remains low because Ebola does not travel through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses.<\/p>\n<p>Cases detected outside the DRC have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, the agency said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s still no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus as the country struggles for control in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[4204,36813,47128,18,135,19,17,5],"class_list":["post-612232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-africa","tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","tag-ebola","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}