Ebola has reached a seventh province in the Democratic Republic of Congo after an infected man travelled across the country and through Rwanda and Uganda. Virologist Placide Mbala said the government is seeing signs of declining transmission but remains cautious about the outbreak.
Published On 12 Sep 202612 Sep 2026
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DRC’s is the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak ever recorded, with 5,794 confirmed cases and 2,786 deaths.
Published On 28 Aug 202628 Aug 2026
The fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in history has reached two new health zones in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a total of 60 areas now affected, according to the latest government figures.
The two new zones affected are Biena and Manguredjipa in DRC’s North Kivu province, where the fatality rate is much higher than the overall rate of 48 percent, partly due to delayed response efforts, according to data by the Ministry of Health released on Friday.
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The ministry said the outbreak in DRC has recorded 5,794 confirmed cases, including 2,786 deaths, and is spreading at an unprecedented speed – faster than efforts to track and slow it.
Efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered by armed conflict in the affected provinces, displacement, attacks on medical personnel and facilities, a mobile working population, and a lack of critical infrastructure.
The outbreak is now on track to surpass the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record – the 2014 to 2016 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people.
Meanwhile, aid group Doctors Without Borders – known by its French acronym MSF – said on Friday it had opened a new treatment centre in Beni in North Kivu in the country’s northeast to enable a faster response in what it said was one of the hardest-hit areas.
Beni has recorded 122 confirmed cases and 87 deaths since the start of the outbreak in mid-May, with an Ebola fatality rate of close to 69 percent, one of the highest in the country, according to the latest government figures.
Aid workers have said that a shortage of bed capacity is one of the factors hampering the response to the outbreak. The new centre “enables the rapid treatment of patients, strengthens contact tracing and supports the health authorities in their efforts to contain the spread of the virus,” MSF said in a statement.
There is no approved vaccine or treatment for this particular strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo, which is rarer than the virus type behind most past outbreaks. This means that relief workers are more reliant on traditional methods like tracing contacts and isolating patients to try to control its spread.
MSF currently has 1,400 staff in DRC supporting the response, and operates treatment centres with a total of 400 beds.
“Early diagnosis and treatment as soon as the first symptoms appear significantly increase people’s chances of survival, whilst reducing the risk of transmission within families and communities,” MSF emergency coordinator Albert Stern said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to contain it.
“The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemic ever recorded,” he said in a post on US social media company X. “It’s growing faster and wider than the response to contain it.
“We know how to contain Ebola and save lives. The world must urgently step up action to get it under control.”
LEE Andrews’ jail is allegedly facing an outbreak of a very itchy disease, which is said to be ‘spreading like wildfire’ amongst inmates.
The husband of Katie Price – who The Sun recently exposed as a conman in an explosive dossier – has been locked up in Dubai’s Al-Awir prison since last month, and is thought to remain behind bars.
As if things couldn’t be worse for the self-proclaimed ‘millionaire businessman’, it’s now been said that a disease is making its way around the notorious prison.
This was claimed in a new joint podcast between Lee’s ex, Alana Percival, and a social media account which goes by ‘The Chaos Corner’.
The woman behind Chaos Corner said during the episode: “Do you know what’s happening in jail?
“They call it, the inmates in there call it ‘The Itchies’, so, they call it The Itchies and it’s spreading like wildfire in the prison and loads of people have got it.”
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As Alana then asked what the disease actually was, her co-host replied that it started off as a rash between the fingers before going ‘scaly’ and spreading.
She then said it was ‘1000% scabies’, going on to joke that Lee would be leaving prison with the skin condition.
Scabies is a contagious skin infestation caused by microscopic mites that lay eggs on the upper level of skin.
The prison Lee is serving time in is the notorious Al Awir prison in Dubai, which is described as the UAE’s ‘Alcatraz’ and previously said to be ‘lice ridden’.
Lee’s ex, Alana, who was on the podcast, was his most recent partner before Katie – with Lee proposing to her just four months before marrying the former glamour model.
His current stint in jail is Lee’s second time behind bars this year, with Katie remaining in the UK and yet to speak out on the situation.
She flew straight back into his arms following his last release from prison, but has remained more silent this second time around.
Katie is, however, still wearing her wedding ring after placing it back on this week despite being spotted without it just days before.
Neighbouring countries send personnel to help keep the blaze from crossing into Germany.
Published On 16 Aug 202616 Aug 2026
Firefighters are battling Belgium’s largest wildfire on record as it burns through the High Fens nature reserve near the German border on Sunday.
The fire broke out on Friday in Belgium’s Liege province and has been spreading east towards Germany. It has burned more than 27sq km (10.4sq miles).
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Belgium’s previous record fire occurred in 2011, burning 14sq km (5.4sq miles) of the same reserve, the European Forest Fire Information System said.
More than 250 emergency services personnel have been deployed, among them firefighters from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Firefighters focused on containing the advancing front of the fire, spokesperson for the government of Belgium’s Wallonia province, Stephanie Ernoux, told the Reuters news agency.
About 600 people in the Belgian border municipalities of Waimes and Butgenbach were told to leave their homes on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread.
Authorities said no homes had been affected as of Sunday morning, but urged people to stay away from the fire zone.
In Germany, the town of Monschau said the fire had come within about 3km (1.9 miles) of the border. Officials did not expect the flames to cross the border, the town said, but it advised residents of three of its districts to leave temporarily due to the smoke.
The fire came as Belgium had just come through another burst of severe heat, the thermometer touching roughly 37C (98.6F) in places on Friday, on top of weeks with barely any rain.
Like other parts of Europe, Belgium is in the middle of a summer of repeated heatwaves. Weather agencies logged temperatures above 35C (95F) in several European countries on Thursday, and the United Kingdom had its hottest day of the year when west London reached 38.1C (100.5F).
Fires have frequently followed the heat. Thousands of people have been driven from their homes in Germany, France, the UK, Croatia and Greece in recent days, and about 500,000 hectares (about 1.24 million acres) have burned across the European Union this year.
