DRC Begins Ebola Vaccinations as Bundibugyo Strain Outbreak Becomes Deadliest in Nation's History
The Democratic Republic of Congo has begun vaccinating front-line healthcare workers against Ebola, as authorities battle an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain that the World Health Organization says is on track to surpass the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic — the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record. According to Al Jazeera, the first injections were administered in the city of Kisangani, with health workers prioritised across provinces surrounding the hard-hit Ituri region. Al Jazeera
By Source Reporters Newsdesk
Fri, 28 August 2026 · 2 min read
The Democratic Republic of Congo has begun vaccinating front-line healthcare workers against Ebola, as authorities battle an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain that the World Health Organization says is on track to surpass the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic — the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record. According to Al Jazeera, the first injections were administered in the city of Kisangani, with health workers prioritised across provinces surrounding the hard-hit Ituri region. Al Jazeera
As of Tuesday, the DRC had recorded 5,713 confirmed cases, including 2,744 deaths — a case fatality rate of nearly one in two, the Congolese health minister Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters. The outbreak is concentrated in Ituri province, which borders Uganda. According to the minister, authorities plan to expand vaccination coverage province by province, moving inward from the perimeter of the outbreak. Al Jazeera
More than 50,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine have been received, though health officials caution that Ervebo is licensed for the Zaire strain of Ebola and its effectiveness against the Bundibugyo strain has not been established. The WHO approved 70,000 doses of Ervebo for use in the DRC last week, of which approximately 20,000 will be deployed in clinical trials to test efficacy against the current strain. "There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment for the new strain," Al Jazeera reported, "and clinical trials are ongoing to find a suitable vaccine." Al Jazeera
The WHO has said the outbreak remains out of control and is being driven by a combination of insecurity, large-scale displacement, a strike by health workers demanding unpaid wages, and intense population movements across the region. Nearly one million displaced people are sheltering in camps in eastern DRC, compounding the difficulty of contact tracing and vaccination. Al Jazeera
The 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic, which the current outbreak threatens to surpass, killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The DRC has now recorded over a dozen Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first identified in 1976.
**Sources:** aljazeera.com
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