4,018 dead and no vaccine: Congo's Ebola outbreak is the world's worst — and its most ignored

Dakar: The number of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak has surpassed 4,000, government data showed on Friday, making it the worst epidemic in the country's history — and one of the most under-reported catastrophes on earth. The figures, reported by Reuters, put the death toll at 4,018 with 8,300 confirmed cases across seven provinces. The outbreak has already exceeded Congo's 2018-2020 epidemic, previously the country's largest, and is now second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed over 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. More than 2,000 patients have recovered. The outbreak, declared in May 2026, is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola — a distinction with lethal consequences. The World Health Organization says there is currently no licensed vaccine for Bundibugyo virus disease, and evidence is insufficient to conclude that the licensed Ervebo vaccine used against Zaire Ebola protects against this strain. Congo's government and the United Nations said last month there were signs transmission was slowing in parts of Ituri province, where the outbreak began. But it continues to spread fast across eastern Congo, including neighbouring North Kivu, and South Ubangi province in the northwest became the seventh province to declare the outbreak last month after a man who had travelled from eastern Congo died of the virus. On Saturday, thousands of people fled an Ebola-hit camp, raising fears of further spread. In its September 25 assessment, WHO described the national risk as 'very high' and the risk to countries sharing Congo's borders as 'high', identifying insecurity, population movement and limited basic services as obstacles to finding cases, monitoring contacts and providing timely care. There are glimmers of science catching up: an experimental antiviral, obeldesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences, is being tested as post-exposure prophylaxis — more than 250 people have enrolled in a trial designed to eventually include nearly 1,000 participants, according to an October 3 Associated Press report. But the central fact remains obscene in its asymmetry. An outbreak that has killed more people than any Ebola epidemic in Congo's history is being fought with mobile laboratories and experimental drugs, while the vaccine that might have blunted it was never developed — because the people it would have protected were never a market. The dying is counted meticulously. The neglect that made it possible is not counted at all.