Ebola Outbreak Hits Record Setting Pace With Over 5,000 Cases And Nearly 2,500 Dead

August 19, 2026 10:10 PM ET An Ebola outbreak tearing through eastern Congo has become the fastest-spreading the world has ever recorded.Congo’s Ministry of Health reported the outbreak had climbed to 5,021 cases and 2,378 deaths as of Sunday, according to CBS News. The virus has sickened and killed people faster than any previous Ebola epidemic. Measured from the first known infection, it has also moved roughly three times quicker than the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people and stands as the deadliest on record, CBS News reported. It is Congo’s seventeenth Ebola epidemic on record, according to Reuters.The World Health Organization now considers the epidemic the deadliest in Congo’s history, surpassing the 2,299 deaths from the 2018 to 2020 outbreak, U