Africa CDC: DR Congo Ebola curve starting to fall, but only 31.6% of US$3.045bn in pledges paid out

The Ebola curve in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has started to decline over the past two weeks, but only 31.6 per cent of the money pledged for the response has been paid out, Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said at a press briefing in Kinshasa, Xinhua reported on 14 October.

International pledges for the response have reached US$3.045 billion, Kaseya said. Of that, US$962.66 million has been disbursed. He called for greater transparency in how the funds are used.

Africa CDC is the African Union's public health agency, based in Addis Ababa. The latest epidemiological report from Congolese health authorities, cited by Xinhua, put the DRC at 9,144 confirmed cases, including 4,410 deaths, as of 12 October, a case fatality rate of 48.2 per cent. That rate is the share of confirmed cases that ended in death. The World Health Organization (WHO) Ebola fact sheet says rates have varied from 25 per cent to 90 per cent in past outbreaks, with an average of around 50 per cent.

The outbreak, caused by Bundibugyo ebolavirus, was declared on 15 May. Xinhua describes it as the deadliest Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC and the second-largest in the world after the West Africa epidemic of 2014 to 2016.

Kaseya said the epicentre was gradually shifting from Ituri Province toward neighbouring North Kivu Province, and that significant gaps remained in disease surveillance and contact tracing, hampering efforts to break chains of transmission. Contact tracing means finding and monitoring people who have been exposed to a patient so they can be isolated early if they fall ill.

Africa CDC's Emergency Consultative Group, an advisory panel of African scientists, struck a similar note on 17 September 2026. It said declines in cases and deaths in some hotspots, including Ituri, were encouraging, and that the data showed increases in some health zones, particularly in North Kivu. "The available data do not yet confirm that the outbreak has reached its peak," the group said.

Kenya has had two confirmed cases. The Ministry of Health announced the second on 14 October, a 39-year-old man who is a close relative of the first patient and tested positive while in quarantine, the Associated Press reported. The first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan who had lived in the DRC, died. The ministry said the two cases are linked and that about 128 contacts had been identified, 108 of them placed in quarantine and five outside Kenya, where the authorities concerned have been notified. The ministry said there was "no evidence of spread in the community".

On 6 October Africa CDC said a high-level multidisciplinary team was flying to Kenya to provide support.

The WHO fact sheet on Ebola disease says people can be infected by direct contact with another person's body fluids or contaminated objects, and that people cannot transmit the virus before they have symptoms. The time from infection to symptoms ranges from two to 21 days. The fact sheet says there is no approved vaccine or treatment for Bundibugyo virus disease, though candidate products are in development.

After a G20+ foreign ministers' meeting on Ebola, convened by the United States in New York on 23 September, Africa CDC said on 24 September that commitments had reached about US$2.9 billion. Kaseya said then that "pledges alone will not stop Ebola."

On 4 October Africa CDC said "every dollar must be traceable from the donor's commitment to the services delivered to communities." It said it would strengthen its Financial Tracking Mechanism, working with the DRC government and partners, to consolidate financial information, identify funding gaps and reduce duplication.