Only one in five health facilities in Ituri, one of the
epicenters of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), has access to enough clean water,
according to new Oxfam field data. The findings raise urgent
concerns about the spread of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus –
access to clean water remains the first line of defense
against transmission – raising fears that the true scale of
the outbreak is underestimated.
Oxfam’s field data
shows that in Mongbwalo, a town of nearly 140,000 people and
one of the outbreak’s epicenters in Ituri province, only
20 percent of people have access to clean water while just
25 percent have access to functional sanitation and hygiene
infrastructure. Many families are forced to use water
contaminated by chemical runoff from mining
operations.
These findings highlight a wider crisis
across Ituri province: contaminated water sources, collapsed
handwashing infrastructure and healthcare centers struggling
to safely dispose of infectious waste, while many frontline
workers still lack basic protective equipment. These
conditions are hampering efforts to contain the spread of
the virus.
Oxfam’s Field Response Coordinator in
Ituri Province, Manel Rebordosa, who is based in the
epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC,
said:
“Water -the absolute first line of defense in
any public health emergency- is simply not available. Miners
working in the surrounding areas have no toilets and
handwashing stations, then they return home to communities
already battling the virus. Clean water costs two dollars
for 20 liters. For most families here, that is far beyond
what they can afford.”
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The US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that this is now
the largest Bundibugyo outbreak on record. The DRC Ministry
of Health has reported 782 confirmed cases and 181 deaths
across 25 health zones, but Oxfam warns the real toll is
likely far higher. Unlike the 2018 outbreak, there is no
licensed vaccine or approved therapeutic for the Bundibugyo
strain, making clean water and sanitation a critical
component of the fight against this virus.
Contact
tracing, the backbone of any Ebola response, has fallen to
just 43 percent coverage. This sits far below the 79 percent
recorded one month into the 2018-2020 outbreak in the same
region.
“One month into the 2018 outbreak, health care
workers achieved contact tracing rates where nearly eight in
ten known contacts were successfully monitored. Today,
following the withdrawal of US funding for disease
surveillance and severe funding shortfalls, contact tracing
is reaching fewer than half of the contacts. That gap is not
just a statistic, it is a painful reality that allows the
virus to spread undetected through communities,” said
Rebordosa.
With only 0.2 doctors per 1000 people and
more than 70 health facilities destroyed by conflict, the
DRC’s health authorities are struggling to identify new
infections fast enough to interrupt transmission. In North
Kivu, deaths are being reported in communities before
patients are ever identified as Ebola cases. More families
are caring for sick relatives at home, unknowingly exposing
others to the virus.
Global humanitarian funding for
the DRC has been slashed by 46 percent -from $2.58 billion
in 2024 to $1.4 billion in 2026- the lowest coverage rate in
a decade, forcing aid agencies to drastically scale back.
Local organizations, often the primary responders during
outbreaks, have received less than 6 percent of recent
humanitarian funding according to the DRC NGO
forum.
The aid cuts have forced organizations to
reduce outreach community teams stripping away a critical
pillar of the response. Furthermore, the severe shortage of
personal protective equipment, sanitation facilities and
clean water infrastructure continue to constrain response
operations, making it increasingly difficult to combat both
misinformation and the spread of the virus.
“When
trusted community outreach teams disappear, rumors spread
faster than the virus. People now fear healthcare
facilities, which they see as deathtraps. Families are
turning to traditional remedies, which risks delaying
treatment and allowing the virus to spread further. Every
day without funding, the virus takes more lives,” said
Rebordosa.
Tibakanya Mireille, a mother of five in
Ituri, said: “I brought my child to the hospital when I
noticed she had a fever and she is now being tested. We are
very worried. Here, two houses have been quarantined, and
one family lost several relatives after caring for a sick
relative, which caused others to be sick. The disease has
already killed several people in our community of Shari, in
Bunia.”
Oxfam is working with partners and has scaled
up its response to the Ebola outbreak, mounting an initial
$11.6 million six-month intervention to provide clean water
and hygiene kits to 200,000 people in Ituri province and to
support community-led awareness.
However, this falls
far short of what is needed.
Notes:
According to
WHO
and DRC’s Ministry of Public Health the contact tracing
rate was at 43,2% on 8th June, 2026 whereby it was at 79%
one month into the 2018 Ebola outbreak in DRC (in
French).
According to DRC’s
Ministry of Health as of 13 June, there are 782
confirmed cases and 181 confirmed deaths.
The outbreak
is caused by a rare Bundibugyo version of the Ebola virus,
which has no approved vaccine or therapeutics. The current
Bundibugyo outbreak is the largest of its kind and the third
largest Ebola outbreak on record according to the CDC,
only behind the 2018-20 Kivu Ebola epidemic in the DRC and
the 2014-16 West African epidemic.
Humanitarian
funding requirements for the DRC fell from $2.58 billion
in 2024 to $1.4 billion in 2026, (nearly 46 per
cent).
According to the Conseil National des Fora des
ONG humanitaires et de Développement in DRC (CONAFOHD DRC),
less than 6 percent of resources for the Ebola response has
been allocated to local organizations in
DRC.
According to World
Bank Data, DRC has approximately 0.2 physicians per
1,000 people
Uganda has now recorded 19 confirmed
Ebola cases, including eight newly confirmed infections and
two deaths. Oxfam is providing protective equipment and
supporting with infection prevention and community
engagement
efforts
