The race to contain the Ebola disease outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is far from over, warns Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
While transmission appears to be slowing in some areas, MSF teams are seeing a worrying shift as cases spread into new and less-prepared areas. At the same time, major gaps in basic response measures persist in the existing hotspots, making containment efforts increasingly difficult.
"Assuming the outbreak is under control because some Ebola treatment centers are admitting fewer patients would be a mistake," says Anthony Kergosien, MSF emergency coordinator in DRC. “In Ituri [province], the original epicenter, the spread is slowing for now. But nationally, the number of new cases has not fallen. The outbreak is not shrinking — it is moving.”
South Ubangi has become the seventh affected province, while North Kivu accounts for nearly half of all newly confirmed cases, with test positivity rates rising sharply in recent days. While undetected chains of transmission are already taking hold in areas with the largest response capacity, the spread of the outbreak into new areas with even weaker preparedness and response capacity poses a serious risk.
This is the largest Ebola disease outbreak ever recorded in DRC
DRC is facing the largest Ebola disease outbreak in its history. Since May, more than 7,200 confirmed cases and 3,500 deaths have been reported, though the true scale is likely higher due to surveillance gaps. To adapt to the evolving outbreak, MSF is sending rapid response teams to newly affected areas. These teams support early case detection, patient observation and care, infection prevention and control, contact tracing, disease surveillance, and community engagement.
"This strategy is about detecting and trying to contain new clusters early, before they grow into large outbreaks," says Kergosien. "In health zones such as Bambu, where we currently have a rapid response team, health systems are already stretched thin by chronic funding gaps, staffing shortages, and weak referral capacities. Ebola pushes these fragile structures [beyond] their limits. Our teams provide a frontline response to bridge the most urgent gaps while the wider response scales up."
MSF teams alone cannot contain an outbreak of this scale. Stronger operational support from UN agencies, including the World Health Organization, is urgently needed to reinforce all pillars of the Ebola response, including surveillance, laboratory capacity, infection prevention measures, and community-based response efforts, particularly outside the areas where the current response is concentrated. This support would enable MSF teams to focus on rapidly responding to newly emerging clusters while ensuring affected communities receive the full range of services required to contain the outbreak.
