Congo's Ebola outbreaks, explained
Why the same region keeps facing Ebola — and how it is fought amid a war.
Ebola is a severe and often fatal disease caused by a virus that spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or animals. It causes fever, bleeding and organ failure, and in past outbreaks has killed a large share of those it infected. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a longer history with the virus than almost anywhere: Ebola was first identified there in 1976, near the Ebola River that gave it its name.
A country that keeps facing Ebola
The DRC has recorded more Ebola outbreaks than any other country — over a dozen since 1976. Most are detected and contained by health teams within weeks. But the country's size, thin health infrastructure and remote, forested regions mean the virus keeps re-emerging, usually after people come into contact with infected wildlife.
When Ebola meets conflict
The outbreak of 2018–2020 in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri became the second-largest in history, killing around 2,300 people. What made it so hard to stop was not the virus alone but where it struck: the same conflict zone described in our other explainers. Armed groups, attacks on treatment centres and deep community mistrust repeatedly disrupted the response, and several health workers were killed.
Tools that changed the fight
There is now an approved Ebola vaccine and treatments that sharply improve survival if given early — advances that did not exist in the earliest outbreaks. The challenge in Congo is rarely the science; it is delivering care safely in places where fighting, distance and distrust stand in the way.
For the latest developments, see our Health coverage.