Published on: 2026-08-14
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
August 14, 2026 Healthcare
The Ebola fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is spreading faster than ever before. According to forecasts by the World Health Organization (WHO), it could become the deadliest in the history of combating the disease: one person dies from it every 30 minutes across the country. This was warned on Friday by the UN Deputy Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.
Today Fletcher held an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which includes the heads of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations. They agreed to sharply increase the scale of joint actions.
“We cannot allow the virus to outpace our response measures,” emphasized the UN representative.
An additional 30.5 million dollars
According to Fletcher, some progress has been made since the beginning of June: agencies are working on the ground, and the UN has sent a Senior Coordinator to the region to combat Ebola. International donors have allocated nearly $300 million to fight the outbreak.
On Friday, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs ordered the allocation of an additional 30.5 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund – in addition to the 24 million dollars previously sent to the DRC and four neighboring countries to combat the outbreak. Fletcher also sent 20 more staff members to the affected region.
“It is necessary to double the number of teams providing safe and dignified burial of the deceased, triple the resources of treatment centers, improve the contact tracing system, and engage more experienced leaders,” he stated. Moreover, it is extremely important to meet the region’s enormous needs for clean water and sanitation, medical care, and other basic services.
“More than 2,000 people have already died. Many others are at risk. The world needs to wake up and respond,” concluded the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The outbreak has spread to the sixth province
As reported today by the UN press service, nearly three months after the initial spread of the Bundibugyo virus, the outbreak has now been recorded in six provinces of the DRC. According to national authorities as of August 12, more than 4,660 confirmed cases of the disease and 2,184 deaths have been registered. The fatality rate is nearly 47 percent.
As the outbreak spreads, UN humanitarian agencies are scaling up their operations. Starting tomorrow, the World Food Programme (WFP) will begin distributing hot meals at additional Ebola treatment centers.
This assistance is especially important given that 2.6 million people in the Ebola-affected areas in eastern DRC are facing an acute food shortage. More than half of these families live in Ituri province—the epicenter of the outbreak. At the same time, only 25 percent of the required funding for food assistance has been provided.
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