PRAYER NEED
Ebola outbreak in DR Congo spreads to Kenya, where seven cases are now confirmed
MONUSCO / Mamadou Alain Coulibaly (CC BY-SA 2.0)
What happened
An outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus, the largest ever recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has passed 8,000 cases and is spreading beyond the east, with new cases in health zones in South Ubangi and Haut-Uele. In Kenya, the health ministry has confirmed seven cases linked to a man who died in Nairobi on 5 October after arriving from DR Congo, among them three health workers who treated him; they are the first infections passed on inside Kenya. Kenya says 128 of his 130 contacts are in quarantine and there is no evidence of community spread. WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern, and nearly half of those infected have died.
An outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus has been spreading across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo through 2026. The World Health Organization reports the outbreak has reached 54 health zones in six provinces — Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé, Tshopo and Bas-Uélé — with Ituri the most affected.
WHO declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern in May 2026. It describes the outbreak as being in a phase of intense transmission: the largest ever recorded in DR Congo, the second largest recorded anywhere, and moving faster than any previous Ebola outbreak. Cases have also been recorded beyond DR Congo, in Uganda and France, and Kenya has now confirmed seven, three of them health workers.
The case fatality ratio has remained close to one in two. Health workers are among those at risk, and the response is working across a wide area where reaching people quickly is difficult.
People affected
- People affected
- 8,000
- Lives lost
- 3,699
Current situation
Transmission is ongoing and continuing to reach new health zones. WHO assesses the risk within DR Congo as very high, and high for neighbouring countries. In the most recent reporting 837 patients were hospitalised in isolation and 1,152 people had recovered, with 82.9 per cent of identified contacts under follow-up. Doses of the Ervebo vaccine have been directed to the response, and vaccination continues alongside case-finding, treatment and safe care.
Pray for
- For every family who has lost someone, and for children left without parents
- For those who are ill now, and for the care they receive
- For health workers treating Ebola patients at risk to themselves, among them those now ill in Kenya
- For the teams tracing contacts across remote and hard-to-reach areas
- For containment, so that the outbreak stops spreading into new communities
Last updated
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