By TheDailyNewsHub
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has spread to a seventh province, raising fresh concerns about the potential for the deadly disease to move beyond the country’s eastern and northeastern regions.
Authorities confirmed an Ebola case in Sud-Ubangi, a northwestern province bordering the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, making it the first province in western DRC to be officially affected by the current outbreak.
Acting Governor Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe said the provincial government declared the outbreak after laboratory analysis confirmed the presence of the Bundibugyo virus, the strain responsible for the current epidemic.
The case involved a 23-year-old man who had travelled extensively before becoming seriously ill. According to local authorities, he travelled from South Kivu through Rwanda and Uganda before reaching Ituri Province, one of the main centres of the outbreak.
He subsequently travelled westward through Tshopo and Mongala provinces before arriving in Sud-Ubangi. He later died after developing severe symptoms, including fever and vomiting blood. Samples taken after his death were sent to the country’s national research institute, where the Ebola infection was confirmed.
Authorities have identified 38 people who came into contact with the patient and placed them in quarantine as health officials work to determine whether additional infections occurred along his journey.
Galekwa warned that the patient’s movements, including travel by boat on the Congo River, could have exposed people in North-Ubangi, Tshopo and Mongala to the virus.
The development is particularly concerning because Sud-Ubangi does not directly border the eastern provinces where the outbreak had previously been concentrated. Its location near the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville has also raised fears of possible regional transmission.
According to the latest figures cited by the Associated Press, the outbreak had recorded 7,022 cases and 3,398 deaths as of September 11, based on figures from the Congolese government.
The outbreak was first detected in mid-May in Ituri Province and has subsequently spread across several conflict-affected areas. The six provinces previously affected were Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele.
The response has been complicated by insecurity, population displacement, movement of people between affected areas and a strike by health workers, according to health authorities and international agencies.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine specifically licensed for the strain. Several vaccines and treatments are, however, being tested.
The DRC has begun vaccinating frontline health workers with the Ervebo vaccine, which was developed against the Zaire species of Ebola. Clinical trials for vaccines targeting the Bundibugyo strain are also underway in parts of the country.
The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak remains a serious public-health emergency, with the number of cases and deaths raising concerns that it could eventually exceed the scale of the 2014–2016 West African Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people.
Neighbouring Uganda, which recorded Ebola cases earlier in 2026, declared itself Ebola-free in July after reporting 20 cases during its outbreak.
Health authorities are now increasing surveillance and contact tracing in Sud-Ubangi and other areas along the patient’s travel route in an effort to prevent further transmission.
The spread into Sud-Ubangi represents a significant geographical expansion of the current outbreak and underscores the difficulty of containing Ebola when infected people travel across large distances before diagnosis.