DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to a fourth province
The Democratic Republic of Congo reported 1,307 confirmed Ebola cases and 377 deaths , with the outbreak now reaching a fourth province, Haut-Uele, which borders South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The country’s 17th Ebola outbreak began in May and is centered on the conflict-affected Ituri province; it now touches a northeastern region home to roughly 15 million people.
Treatment centers are running short of supplies. A health worker described needing “more of everything: protective gear, medicines, rapid test kits … and body bags.” Much of the transmission has occurred at funerals, where relatives handle bodies that remain highly infectious — a long-standing driver of Ebola spread in the region.
Containment is colliding with politics. On Saturday the government banned public gatherings in four provinces, including the capital Kinshasa, ahead of a July 8 protest planned against constitutional reform. Officials frame the ban as an outbreak-control measure, but the timing hands the government a public-health rationale to curb demonstrations — a tension that may complicate trust in the response just as the virus expands toward international borders.