Bundibugyo Ebola in DR Congo: 3,748 cases and 1,657 deaths as of 1 August

The figures released by the World Health Organization, updated to 1 August 2026, are as follows: 3,748 cases, 1,657 deaths, 708 recoveries. The outbreak was confirmed in May 2026 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda and is caused by the Bundibugyo species of the Ebola virus. On 17 May the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern, the instrument provided for under the international health regulations to activate coordination between states.

The element that distinguishes this outbreak from previous ones is pharmacological: for the Bundibugyo species no authorised vaccines or specific treatments exist. This is not a matter of availability or distribution, but of the absence of approved products for that viral target.

Something has moved on this front, and the limits must be reported precisely. On 24 July 2026 phase one trials began in the United Kingdom for the first vaccine candidate specific to the Bundibugyo species; a second study was launched in Canada in the following days. Phase one is the first step in clinical testing on humans: it serves to assess safety and tolerability in a small number of participants, not to demonstrate that the product protects against infection. In the documentary material available to this newsroom, the number of participants, the design of the studies and any declared conflicts of interest do not appear; no efficacy data exist, by definition, at this stage. A phase one candidate is not an available vaccine.

According to the WHO, the trials started more quickly than in previous outbreaks because the protocols had already been written before the outbreak was declared. In Ituri province a clinical study is also under way on a possible post-exposure prophylaxis drug, likewise without published results. Finally, new data have emerged from animal studies concerning the authorised vaccine Ervebo, which however targets a different Ebola strain: preclinical data from animal models are not transferable to humans without dedicated clinical trials, and this is the main limitation of that line of research.

On the regulatory front, the European Medicines Agency’s Emergency Task Force is working with the African Medicines Agency and with national African regulatory authorities, with the support of the AVAREF forum of the WHO’s African regional office, to define the design of the clinical studies. This is the first health emergency in which the EMA has collaborated with the AMA since the latter became operational: a matter of institutional architecture, not of therapy.

The context in which the outbreak is developing weighs as much as the biology of the virus. In Ituri province, humanitarian crisis, insecurity and high mobility of population and trade combine: three conditions that make contact tracing difficult, that is, the tool on which containment relies in the absence of vaccines. In Bunia, the capital of Ituri, a new 100-bed treatment centre has been inaugurated. In late July the World Food Programme launched an appeal for immediate funding, warning that hunger is worsening the response to the outbreak.

For those living in the European Union and the European Economic Area, the ECDC assesses the probability of infection as very low.

The ratio between deaths and recorded cases as of 1 August — 1,657 out of 3,748 — is the harshest figure in the picture, and it must be read with the understanding that in an ongoing outbreak confirmed cases underestimate actual cases, and that the recorded recoveries, 708, refer only to people who entered the care system. The next useful update will be the WHO bulletin following the one of 1 August.

Sources: World Health Organization; UN News; European Medicines Agency — Ebola; European Medicines Agency — EMA and AMA.