Ebola: More than 1,000 people killed in DR Congo outbreak

More than 1,000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), health officials said.

At least 2,473 cases had been recorded in the fastest-growing outbreak in history, with at least 737 patients in isolation or hospital as of Monday, according to an update from DRC's health ministry.

Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that 1,031 deaths had been confirmed.

"These are people dying. They are dying because we don't have vaccines, we don't have medicine, we don't have funding," he said.

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, is unlike most previous Ebola outbreaks because the Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments.

It has killed people at a faster rate than any previous outbreak, including the 2013-2016 epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people out of 28,000 cases, and is considered the worst on record.

During that outbreak, it took about eight months from the first confirmed case to reach 1,000 deaths, compared to nearly ten weeks during this outbreak.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads among humans through contact with bodily fluids - such as vomit, blood or semen - and with contaminated surfaces and materials.

The disease is rare but severe and often fatal.

Speaking at a health summit in Ghana this week, Dr Kaseya called for intensified efforts to slow the outbreak, warning that it could become "one of the worst Ebola outbreaks the world has ever documented".

The true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official figures indicate, according to the World Health Organisation.

Some communities at its epicentre in Ituri province also remain difficult to reach, mainly due to fighting among rebel groups.

Officials have warned that 80% of new cases have emerged outside known chains of transmission, indicating that the outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can track, despite stepped-up responses in Ituri and four other provinces.

Community resistance to Ebola teams has also hampered the response, particularly regarding carrying out safe burials, as some communities prefer traditional burials, which increase the risk of further transmission.

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"The biggest challenge remains resistance from or outright refusal by some communities to accept response teams," Robert Ndjalonga, head of civil protection in Ituri province, said.

"On several occasions, burial teams have had to be escorted by security forces to ensure that safe and dignified burials could be carried out without incident."

(c) Sky News 2026: Ebola: More than 1,000 people killed in DR Congo outbreak