The United Nations says health partners will this week inaugurate the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) largest Ebola treatment centre as the country grapples with its worst-ever Ebola outbreak.
The new 100-bed facility is expected to strengthen the country’s response by enabling faster identification of suspected cases and quicker referral of confirmed patients for specialised treatment, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the DRC had recorded 3,605 confirmed Ebola cases and 1,587 deaths as of 30 July, following the outbreak declared in mid-May.
WHO said the current epidemic has become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the country, surpassing the 2018–2020 outbreak, which registered 3,317 confirmed cases.
The agency also reported a record 567 new infections and 296 deaths during the latest reporting week, highlighting the rapid pace of transmission.
Acting Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Carl Skau, said the outbreak was compounding an already dire humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC.
“Ebola is moving fast, hitting people already facing conflict and hunger. Communities are key to ending it but need support,” Skau said after a weekend visit to the region.
The UN said treatment capacity has expanded significantly since the outbreak was announced in 2025. Additional treatment beds have been established in affected communities, including Nizi, where more than 80,000 internally displaced people are living in overcrowded conditions amid frequent population movements linked to mining activities.
READ ALSO:Â UN Allocates $2 Million for Rwanda’s Ebola Preparedness
Health agencies, with support from the United States and the International Medical Corps (IMC), have also established an Ebola transit centre at the Kigonze displacement camp on the outskirts of Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province.
Despite the intensified response, WHO warned that a substantial scale-up of containment measures remains urgently needed as the outbreak continues to spread.
The agency said insecurity, mass displacement, population mobility and cross-border movements were complicating response efforts and increasing the risk of further transmission.
Around 270,000 people displaced by violence are currently living in camps across Ituri Province, where overcrowded conditions have heightened the risk of the disease spreading.
WHO added that the outbreak has expanded to five additional provinces over the past two months and is now affecting 49 health zones, with active transmission continuing in 33 of them.
Ituri remains the worst-affected province, accounting for 88 per cent of all confirmed Ebola cases and more than 82 per cent of reported deaths across the country.
