NAIROBI — The head of Africa’s disease control agency warned Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo could become the worst on record if not contained quickly, citing tens of thousands of untraced contacts of infected people.
Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya issued the alert during a virtual meeting of African heads of state in Burundi, according to multiple reports.
“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon it will be worse than what we had in West Africa and eastern DRC,” Kaseya said.
As of mid-June, the DRC has reported 837 confirmed cases and 196 confirmed deaths from the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, according to health authorities. This outbreak, which began in May in eastern provinces including Ituri, is already the largest recorded for this virus strain and has spread to Uganda with at least 19 linked cases.
The Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, though promising candidates are under testing, complicating response efforts. The outbreak is occurring in a region plagued by conflict, insecurity, and attacks on health workers, which have hindered contact tracing and vaccination campaigns where applicable. Only about half of identified contacts are currently under follow-up, officials have said.
The warning echoes projections from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which modeled potential scenarios exceeding 20,000 cases in coming months without immediate scaled-up interventions. The 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, by comparison, killed more than 11,000 people.
The DRC Ministry of Health and international partners, including the World Health Organization, are leading response operations focused on surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention, and community engagement. A joint continental preparedness and response plan launched by Africa CDC and WHO seeks $518 million through November to support affected and at-risk countries.
African leaders have pledged funding toward the effort, but gaps in resources and supplies persist. The Red Cross has cautioned that the outbreak has not yet peaked and could last up to a year.
Cross-border coordination with Uganda remains active, with cases there reported as contained through enhanced surveillance. Details on the precise number of untraced contacts and overall suspected cases continue to evolve as investigations proceed.
Health authorities continue to urge heightened vigilance across the region.
