Ebola outbreak in Congo remains out of control, WHO warns

The World Health Organization has warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains out of control, stating that the epidemic continues to expand and the risk of transmission to neighboring countries is increasing, despite weeks of containment efforts.

The UN agency said the current outbreak is the largest in the country's history, emphasizing the urgent need to significantly scale up the health response to limit the virus's spread, according to the German Press Agency.

Latest data show the outbreak is accelerating, with 567 new cases and 296 deaths reported last week alone—the highest weekly figures since the disease began spreading.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,605, including 1,587 deaths, while 651 patients have recovered from the infection.

The organization noted that the current outbreak has surpassed the previous largest wave in the country, which occurred between 2018 and 2020 and saw 3,317 confirmed cases.

Despite improvements in case detection and expanded laboratory testing, the WHO stressed that most of the increase in numbers reflects a wider spread of the virus, not just better detection methods.

The agency also pointed out that contact tracing remains a major challenge, with only about 80% of people who had contact with patients being monitored for three weeks. Health experts say effective control of the virus requires raising this rate to at least 95%.