DRC Ebola Cases Hit 452 as WHO Seeks $518M
The Democratic Republic of Congo recorded 452 confirmed Ebola cases and 82 deaths as of June 5, according to the country’s health ministry. Health authorities reported 71 new cases in a single 24-hour period on June 4, spanning the northeastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu. The World Health Organization and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention responded on June 6 by launching a $518 million, six-month continental response plan.
The spike in single-day cases drew immediate warnings from Congolese health officials about the pace of spread. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, was declared on May 15 and has escalated into the fourth-largest Ebola outbreak on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of the 452 confirmed cases, 258 patients are currently in isolation or receiving hospital care. Eight people have recovered. Those numbers point to a severe bottleneck in treatment capacity relative to confirmed infections.
Contact tracing — one of the primary tools for slowing Ebola’s spread — has fallen far short of what outbreak response requires. The DRC health ministry’s situation report stated that of 4,766 contacts being followed up across three provinces, only 2,755 were actually reached, a follow-up rate of 57.8 percent. The report described this as a “major gap.”
At least 34 health workers have been infected, and seven have died, according to data compiled by IANS. Their exposure points to failures in infection prevention at the facility level, which the health ministry listed among its primary operational challenges alongside medicine shortages, insufficient standardised Ebola treatment capacity, and resistance to post-mortem swabbing — a procedure critical to confirming cases and preventing transmission at burials.
The DRC health ministry’s situation report also identified a $21.5 million funding shortfall in the current response effort.
“Currently, the situation is very fluid, and while the numbers are not completely known, based on the trajectory of the outbreak and the rapid extension into multiple different health zones over a short period of time, this appears to be in one of the lower end of the percentage of individuals that are being detected and isolated,” Dr. Satish Pillai, the incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, said at a press briefing on June 5.
The CDC released modelling on June 5 warning that without large-scale public health intervention, the outbreak could exceed 20,000 cases and 4,000 deaths within three months. The agency’s report stated that if sustained interventions are not rapidly implemented, the outbreak “could become as large as the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease outbreak, which resulted in more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.”
The outbreak has already crossed into Uganda. The Ugandan Ministry of Health confirmed three new cases on June 6, bringing that country’s cumulative total to 19 infections and two deaths. The spread across the border has accelerated the international response.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the $518 million plan on June 6, calling for both funding and political commitment. The strategy, developed jointly with the Africa CDC, targets the June-to-November period and aims to help the DRC and Uganda contain their outbreaks while preparing neighbouring countries through enhanced border screening and surveillance measures, the organisations said.
The cases remain most heavily concentrated in Ituri province in northeastern Congo, Reuters reported — a remote region with poor health infrastructure and widespread insecurity that has complicated the response from the outset.
Regional and Cross-Border Impact
The spread to Uganda raises containment concerns for East and Central Africa more broadly. The joint WHO-Africa CDC plan explicitly addresses the need to help additional countries prepare for potential cases, with border screening identified as a key protective measure. Uganda’s total of 19 infections, while smaller than the DRC’s, has grown quickly; the country reported three new cases in a single day on June 6.
The CDC’s separate modelling assessment of risk to the United States found that the overall threat to the U.S. population remains low. A second CDC report released June 5 concluded that even if a case were imported to the U.S., further spread would be unlikely given the strength of the public health system and clinical infection control measures. The agency noted that only 11 people infected with Ebola have ever been treated in the United States, all linked to the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak.
Background
The current outbreak is the 17th recorded Ebola outbreak in the DRC and the first involving the Bundibugyo strain at this scale. The WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern on May 17 — two days after the outbreak was formally announced. A separate, smaller Ebola outbreak in the DRC’s Kasai Province, caused by the Zaire strain, ended in December 2025 after 81 confirmed cases and 28 deaths. The Bundibugyo virus is a distinct type of Ebola disease; the current outbreak is the largest known outbreak of this strain on record, the CDC said. New CDC modelling suggests the virus likely made the jump from animals to humans in mid-to-late February, roughly three months before the outbreak was officially declared.
What Happens Next
The Africa CDC and WHO’s joint $518 million response plan runs from June through November and will require contributions from member states and international donors. The DRC health ministry is working to close its $21.5 million funding gap in current operations. Uganda’s Ministry of Health is continuing active case monitoring; further updates on the country’s 19 confirmed infections are expected. The CDC will continue publishing modelling updates as outbreak data develops.
