KINSHASA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) said on Friday that its ongoing Ebola outbreak is "under control" and has passed its peak, although local flare-ups, continued transmission and the spread of the disease to a seventh province point to persistent risks.
"The 17th Ebola outbreak is under control, and the peak was reached at the beginning of the third week of August 2026," government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said while reading a report from a cabinet meeting on Friday, citing Health Minister Roger Kamba.
According to the government, all major indicators point to a decline in cases, with 10 health zones affected before the latest expansion of the outbreak reporting no new cases for at least 21 days, while transmission has slowed in several regions in the eastern province of Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The authorities nevertheless called for continued vigilance and strict contact tracing, saying close surveillance remains necessary in regions where recent flare-ups have been reported.
Former Congolese Health Minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani Mbanda, now a member of parliament, urged caution over the assessment, saying on Saturday that the downward trend in some areas should not be taken to mean that transmission has been brought under control everywhere.
In an outbreak involving multiple transmission foci, different areas may reach their peaks at different times, he said, adding that the epidemic curve reflects detected cases and could be affected by infections that remain unidentified in communities.
In its latest weekly report on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said the outbreak "remains uncontrolled and increasingly heterogeneous," with transmission easing in some areas while intensifying or spreading geographically elsewhere.
"The outbreak is increasingly geographically heterogeneous rather than showing a uniform decline," it said.
The DRC government has also confirmed Thursday the first Ebola case in the northwestern province of Sud-Ubangi, making it the seventh province affected. Sud-Ubangi does not border any of the six provinces where confirmed Ebola cases had previously been reported.
According to Mbanda, the patient, a 23-year-old man who later died, had traveled extensively before arriving in Sud-Ubangi, with an itinerary spanning several provinces, neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, as well as both road and river routes.
As of Sept. 10, the DRC had recorded 7,022 confirmed Ebola cases, including 3,398 deaths, with a case fatality rate of 48.4 percent. The outbreak has now affected 62 health zones across seven provinces.
The current outbreak, declared in May, has become the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in the DRC's history and the second-largest globally, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.
