Ebola in Congo: 4,566 confirmed cases and 2,128 deaths

The ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreak in Congo continues to produce new confirmed cases, and updated data make it possible to gauge its trajectory without resorting to estimates. On August 12, 2026, Congolese health authorities published an update, referring to data as of August 11, showing 4,566 confirmed cases and 2,128 related deaths. The assessment was cited by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on its page dedicated to the outbreak and in the weekly communicable disease threats report for week 32.

The trend

Compared to the previous report, 117 new confirmed cases and 67 additional deaths have been recorded. 570 patients were hospitalized in isolation at the time of the survey.

Indicator	Value
Confirmed cases	4,566
Related deaths	2,128
New cases since previous report	+117
New deaths since previous report	+67
Patients hospitalized in isolation	570
Affected health zones	53 of 140
Contacts under surveillance	82.4%

The ratio between recorded deaths and confirmed cases, calculated on the published figures, is close to 47%. It should be read with caution: it is an arithmetic ratio between two surveillance figures, not a consolidated measure of fatality, because the denominator includes only laboratory-confirmed cases and not probable or undetected cases, and because some currently hospitalized patients do not yet have a defined outcome.

Geographic extent

The outbreak affects 53 of 140 health zones distributed across five provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo. The surveillance coverage figure is the second indicator worth watching: 82.4% of identified contacts are under follow-up.

It is a percentage that says two things at once. On one hand, the tracing chain works for the large majority of registered contacts; on the other, nearly one in five identified contacts escapes monitoring, and in an outbreak transmitted through close contact, that fraction is the gap through which transmission continues. The denominator, moreover, concerns identified contacts: those never registered do not appear in the statistic.

The international picture

The European Centre considers the probability of infection very low for those living in the European Union and the European Economic Area, and continues to monitor the situation. During 2026, imported cases were recorded in Germany and France — a figure that does not change the overall risk assessment, but indicates that European surveillance systems have already been tested.

Uganda, which had recorded its own outbreak, declared it over on July 28, 2026.

The August 18 deadline

The immediate institutional appointment has been set: a meeting of the Emergency Committee provided for under the International Health Regulations is convened for August 18, 2026. This is the body that assesses whether a health situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, with the operational consequences — temporary recommendations to States, coordination of the response — that follow from such a determination.

This newspaper had postponed coverage of the outbreak on August 13, for a piece that did not pass source accuracy checks. The data published today come from the update by the Congolese Ministry of Health as reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and are the most recent verifiable figures at the time of publication: the next review is expected following the outcome of the August 18 meeting.