Kinshasa, August 20, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could be significantly larger than official figures suggest, with modelling indicating that the actual number of infections may have crossed 10,000 and could be as high as 15,000, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday.
The continental health agency said current surveillance systems may be detecting only 30 to 40 per cent of cases. The estimates were produced by the DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research in collaboration with Imperial College London and other partners.
Kyeng Mercy, an Africa CDC official, said during an online briefing that the modelling indicated the “real burden” could be between 10,000 and 15,000 cases. She stressed, however, that the figures were estimates and carried inherent uncertainty.
“We are just saying that we are not detecting as much as we should, based on certain indicators,” Mercy said.
The latest Africa CDC figures put the number of confirmed cases at 5,105, including 2,420 deaths, while 1,091 patients have recovered.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, has spread across six provinces — Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele. Two cases have recently been detected in Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, which lies near the border with the Central African Republic.
Yap Boum II, head of the Africa CDC’s emergency preparedness and response division, said the reported infections were likely to represent only part of the actual outbreak. He attributed the surveillance challenge partly to the fact that Bundibugyo Ebola can produce milder and less typical symptoms than the Zaire ebolavirus.
Fewer than 10 per cent of detected cases are currently among known contacts, while less than 40 per cent have an epidemiological link to a confirmed case, Boum said.
The DRC declared the outbreak on May 15. Africa CDC said it has since become the country’s largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak on record and the second-largest Ebola epidemic globally.
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