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DR Congo Ebola outbreak now country's largest

August 2, 2026

The Bundibugyo strain outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has surpassed the country's 2018 to 2020 epidemic in confirmed cases.

The World Health Organization reports that as of 30 July the Democratic Republic of the Congo had recorded 3,605 confirmed cases of Ebola, including 1,587 deaths, a case fatality rate of 44%. Counting cross-border cases in Uganda and France, the WHO puts the cumulative total at 3,626 confirmed cases and 1,589 deaths. ABC News carries Associated Press reporting on Congolese government data, putting confirmed cases at 3,442 and deaths at 1,521. The BBC, drawing on the WHO, reports 3,605 cases and 1,587 deaths. The spread reflects different counting dates and different counting authorities. The spread reflects different counting dates and different counting authorities, not a dispute about what happened.

The WHO describes the past week as the outbreak's highest weekly total and calls the outbreak "intensifying, with sustained transmission and continued increases in reported cases and deaths". That is the direction of travel, and it is why any figure holds only to the date attached to it. Twenty cases have been reported in Uganda during this outbreak and one in France. The BBC reports two cases diagnosed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were later treated in Germany, an account the WHO also carries.

The record claim rests on the country's 2018 to 2020 epidemic, and the benchmark differs between accounts: the WHO puts that earlier epidemic at 3,317 confirmed cases, while the BBC describes it as nearly 3,500 recorded cases. Bloomberg's headline states the Congo outbreak has become the country's largest on record; Al Jazeera's states it has become the world's second largest. Settled: the WHO's 30 July figures, the 44% fatality rate, the cross-border cases in Uganda, France and Germany, and the record scale. Not settled: how far the count climbs from here, and which reading of the earlier epidemic the record is measured against.

Still developing

The counting is still moving, with the WHO reporting the past week as the outbreak's highest weekly total and each tally holding only to the date and authority attached to it. The benchmark for the record itself remains unresolved, since the WHO and the BBC give different accounts of how large the 2018 to 2020 epidemic was.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 100% · Contested 0% · Developing 0%

Sources