Since late May, more than 150 Ebola patients have fled Congolese hospitals due to food shortages and poor conditions.
Bloomberg writes about this.
In one case, 11 people suspected of being infected fled a hospital in the city of Bumba due to food shortages, a situation that is being compounded by a widespread food crisis in the east of the country.
The Ebola outbreak has already infected nearly 900 people. More than a quarter of those infected have died. Doctors are also tracking about 6 400 people who may have been in contact with the sick.
People who are asked to remain under medical supervision often lose the opportunity to work and visit markets. In many families, the isolated person is the sole breadwinner.
Even before the Ebola outbreak, ongoing armed conflict and migration had left nearly 10 million people in eastern Congo with food insecurity.
Ebola outbreak in Congo
The first human case of Ebola virus disease was reported in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. The mortality rate during the first outbreaks was as high as 90%. Thanks to the advent of the Ebola-Zaire strain vaccine, this figure has been reduced to almost 40%.
The largest outbreak of Ebola virus in terms of the number of infected people occurred in West Africa from 2014 to 2016. The number of victims exceeded 11 thousand. In 2014, Time magazine named the fighters against Ebola "Person of the Year".
On May 17, 2026, WHO reported a new outbreak of Ebola fever in Congo and Uganda (at that time, 80 deaths were known, and on May 19, local authorities announced that 131 people had died). The organization called the fever epidemic a public health emergency of international concern. After all, there is no vaccine for this strain — Ebola-Bundibugyo.
At the same time, WHO advised countries neighbouring the DR Congo to activate their national disaster and emergency management mechanisms, as well as conduct screening at borders and main internal roads.
The current outbreak is the 17th in the history of DR Congo. All previous ones, except one, were caused by the Zaire strain.
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