Ebola in Congo: 2,786 deaths and vaccination of health workers in Kisangani

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to grow. The update released on August 27, 2026 by the Congolese authorities, with data as of the previous day, reports 5,794 confirmed cases and 2,786 related deaths. Over twenty-four hours the count rose by 81 confirmed cases and 42 deaths, while 843 people were hospitalized in isolation. These are the most recent verifiable figures at the time of publication: daily bulletins are realigned as laboratory investigations are completed, and each number should be read as a provisional snapshot (ECDC).

The geographic spread explains why the curve is not flattening. The health zones affected number 60 out of 151, spread across six provinces: not a contained outbreak, but a chain of transmission crossing a territory as large as Western Europe. The most telling figure for understanding where containment efforts stand is contact tracing, which remains at 82.3% of those identified. The remaining share is the portion of the contagion escaping tracking, and in Ebola epidemics that is where new outbreaks tend to restart.

On August 27 the Congolese Minister of Public Health launched a vaccination campaign in Kisangani targeting frontline workers, using the ERVEBO vaccine. The decision should be read alongside a point that the World Health Organization has documented since the start of the emergency: the epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo species of the virus, for which no authorized vaccines or specific treatments exist (WHO). The available material contains no independent data on the campaign’s effect against this species: the Congolese decision is recorded as a measure adopted by the national health authority, not as an intervention of demonstrated efficacy. This is a distinction this newspaper maintains as a matter of policy, and one that in this case coincides with what the international body has stated.

The formal framing of the emergency dates back to May 17, 2026, when the WHO classified the epidemic as a public health emergency of international concern. The classification activates temporary recommendations for states and opens coordination channels, but does not in itself provide resources: its function is regulatory and one of alert.

A useful point of comparison comes from the neighboring country. On August 26 the WHO declared the epidemic in Uganda over, after 42 consecutive days without new confirmed cases. Uganda’s toll stopped at 20 confirmed cases and two deaths (WHO). The difference in scale between the two countries — twenty cases against nearly six thousand — indicates how much weight falls on the timeliness of identification and the ability to trace contacts in the early days, more than on the availability of a pharmacological tool.

On the Congolese side, the factor most affecting the response is not medical. Since the emergency was declared, the WHO has recorded at least twelve attacks against health facilities or personnel. Each incident interrupts contact tracing, suspends activities at treatment centers, and pushes communities away from services: these are the same mechanisms that, in previous epidemics in the country’s eastern region, lengthened the duration of outbreaks. The safety of health workers, in this context, is an epidemiological variable.

Two points remain unresolved that the bulletins do not clarify: the share of cases not linked to known transmission chains and the average time between symptom onset and isolation admission, indicators that measure the strength of surveillance. As of August 26, 843 people were hospitalized in isolation and 60 out of 151 health zones were affected.