DR Congo's Ebola Outbreak Spreads to Border Zones: What to Know
On September 25, 2026, the World Health Organization said the Ebola outbreak caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had spread to two new health zones. The total is now 63 affected health zones across seven provinces. As of September 23, the country had reported 7,890 confirmed cases and 3,799 deaths, according to WHO. Al Jazeera
The two newly affected areas are Bulu in Sud-Ubangi, on the border with the Central African Republic, and Dungu in Haut-Uele, on the border with South Sudan. Both are frontier areas where movement across borders makes surveillance (finding cases) and case investigation (tracing how people were exposed) harder. U.S. CDC tracking lists Bas-Uele, Haut-Uele, Ituri, Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu among provinces with confirmed Ebola disease in the current outbreak. CDC
Ituri province is the epicentre, meaning the area with the most cases. It has recorded 6,032 confirmed cases since the epidemic started in May, including 868 new confirmed cases in the last 21 days. That pace made up a large share of new cases nationally in September. National totals rose from 7,022 confirmed cases on September 11, according to government data, to 7,890 by September 23. Al Jazeera
Death rates vary by place. Nearly 60% of people diagnosed with Ebola in North Kivu died, compared with a national average of 48%. That share of deaths among diagnosed cases is called the case fatality ratio. Reports compiled in Europe recorded 322 cases, including 130 deaths, across seven of 13 health zones in Haut-Uele as of September 24, and two cases, including one death, in Sud-Ubangi. A 2026 WHO publication on the Haut-Uele part of the outbreak reported 475 confirmed cases in that province. ECDC
Contact tracing, the work of finding and checking people who were exposed to a sick person, remains well below what the caseload would require. Africa CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya said only about 30,000 contacts were on the contact list, versus about 420,000 expected from more than 7,000 confirmed cases. The gap is large. It means many potential exposures are not under follow-up.
Tools against this species are limited. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there are no approved vaccines for the Bundibugyo strain and that WHO is accelerating clinical trials of vaccines and treatments. WHO published the event as Disease Outbreak News item 2026-DON618 on September 25. Its Regional Office for Africa issued Weekly External Situation Report 19 for the Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda with data as of September 20. WHO
The expansion follows earlier signals. On June 30, Congolese health authorities were tracing people potentially exposed to Ebola in two provinces not previously affected, according to sources cited at the time. By September, WHO Regional Office for Africa reporting described 62 health zones across seven provinces affected, with Bulu Health Zone in Sud-Ubangi as the latest affected, before the September 25 update raised the total to 63. Reuters
The broader context here is operational rather than only about the virus itself. An outbreak of this size puts parallel pressure on isolation rooms, safe burial teams, lab testing, and routine care. Border zones add a need to coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions. The shortfall in the contact list matters because each untraced contact can become an onward chain that appears later as a confirmed case or community death.
In my view, three variables will shape the next reporting cycle. The first is whether Ituri incidence steadies or keeps producing close to 800 to 900 confirmations per three-week period. The second is whether Bulu and Dungu stay as limited introductions or develop into sustained local transmission. The third is whether trial vaccines and treatments move from faster trials to field use under proper protocols. The numbers to watch are new confirmations by health zone, contacts under follow-up per confirmed case, and province-specific fatality ratios.
