Ebola cases in DR Congo surpass 3,000 - as health workers go on strike

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has recorded more than 3,000 confirmed cases of Ebola, as it continues to battle the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history.

According to government data, the number of Ebola cases has increased to 3,075, while the number of deaths has risen to 1,354.

That comes just three days after the DRC reported more than 1,000 deaths from the outbreak, which was declared on 15 May and is driven by the Bundibugyo strain that has no approved vaccines or treatments.

Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday: "These are people dying.

"They are dying because we don't have vaccines, we don't have medicine, we don't have funding."

This outbreak has killed people at a faster rate than any previous outbreak, including the 2013-2016 epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people out of 28,000 cases, and is considered the worst on record.

During that outbreak, it took about eight months from the first confirmed case to reach 1,000 deaths, compared to nearly ten weeks during this outbreak.

Meanwhile, around 100 health workers at an Ebola treatment centre in eastern DRC have gone on strike over unpaid performance bonuses, disrupting care for patients in the epicentre of the country's rapidly growing outbreak.

The Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, Ituri province, was largely paralysed after doctors, nurses and security staff stopped work and protested outside the centre on Saturday.

Last week, health workers at Bunia General Hospital, the region's largest medical centre, went on strike over unpaid salaries. Some told The Associated Press they have not received any payment since they started work at the onset of the outbreak.

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Ebola is highly contagious and spreads among humans through contact with bodily fluids - such as vomit, blood or semen - and with contaminated surfaces and materials.

The disease is rare but severe and often fatal.

The true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official figures indicate, according to the World Health Organisation.

Some communities at its epicentre in Ituri province also remain difficult to reach, mainly due to fighting among rebel groups.

Officials have warned that 80% of new cases have emerged outside known chains of transmission, indicating that the outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can track, despite stepped-up responses in Ituri and four other provinces.

(c) Sky News 2026: Ebola cases in DR Congo surpass 3,000 - as health workers go on strike