The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak is still not under control, even as national tallies show uneven progress across seven affected provinces. Marie Roseline Belizaire, the agency’s regional emergency director for Africa, told an online briefing that Congolese authorities had recorded 7,773 confirmed cases and 3,759 deaths as of Monday—a toll that makes this the fastest-growing Ebola epidemic on record and keeps cross-border preparedness on the agenda for neighboring states.
What the WHO reported on Wednesday
Belizaire described encouraging signs in some areas but stressed that transmission patterns differ province by province. Between August 31 and September 20, confirmed infections fell about 26 percent in Ituri, long the epicenter, and roughly 15 percent in Haut-Uélé, according to figures she cited from Congolese health authorities. North Kivu moved in the opposite direction, with cases up 73 percent over the same window.
“This clearly shows that the outbreak continues to evolve differently across the affected areas,” Belizaire said, adding that the event still poses a significant risk to regional and global health security. WHO incident manager Catherine Smallwood, speaking from North Kivu, said responders are trying to move capacity from urban centers such as Beni and Butembo into remote villages where referrals take longer and community deaths remain common.
Detection gaps and child mortality
WHO officials said roughly one in three new infections is identified only after a patient has died outside treatment centers, which slows contact tracing and burials teams need to run safely. Belizaire noted that children under five face a case fatality rate above 60 percent in this outbreak, compared with about 40 percent among adults—a disparity that pushes pediatric beds and family counseling up the priority list.
Xinhua, reporting from Kinshasa, quoted Belizaire urging authorities to detect cases earlier, reduce community deaths, and maintain surveillance even as Ituri stabilizes. The WHO’s latest disease outbreak notice had already flagged Kayna health zone in North Kivu as a newly affected area and warned that North Kivu carried one of the outbreak’s highest observed fatality rates, with investigations continuing into why mortality there has run so high.
Staffing and treatment beds
Smallwood said Ebola treatment centers are opening across North Kivu, but facilities still lack enough paid clinicians to operate at full scale. WHO representative Anne Ancia told reporters a single center can require roughly 300 health professionals, from nurses to hygienists, and that partners willing to work inside those units remain scarce. UN News quoted Belizaire saying the response is no longer simply about scaling up everywhere but about aiming teams at provinces where transmission and geographic spread remain greatest.
What comes next
Belizaire called for consolidating gains in Ituri while reinforcing North Kivu and other emerging hotspots, keeping essential health services running, and sustaining cross-border readiness. For public-health readers, the new fact is the split trajectory: national totals still climbing toward 8,000 confirmed cases even as weekly counts fall in the historic epicenter and surge along Congo’s eastern borderlands.