Ebola outbreak in Congo nears 1,000 deaths, becoming second-deadliest on record

An Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus species has killed nearly 1,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since confirmation in May 2026, WHO and CDC data show. Multiple outlets rank it the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, surpassing the 2018–2020 eastern DRC outbreak. Only the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic, which killed over 11,000, was deadlier.