--- title: "Volunteers Risk Their Lives to Stop a Spiraling Ebola Outbreak in Congo" description: "An Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 300 people since May, and the burial teams and health workers fighting to contain it face a second danger alongside the virus: the anger and mistrust of the communities they are trying to save." category: "World" category_url: https://herald.la/category/world author: "Naomi Fields" published: 2026-06-27T09:38:34.000Z updated: 2026-06-27T09:38:34.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/volunteers-risk-their-lives-to-stop-a-spiraling-ebola-outbreak-in-congo tags: ["Ebola", "Democratic Republic of Congo", "global health", "WHO", "outbreak", "Africa"] --- # Volunteers Risk Their Lives to Stop a Spiraling Ebola Outbreak in Congo An Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 300 people since May, and the burial teams and health workers fighting to contain it face a second danger alongside the virus: the anger and mistrust of the communities they are trying to save. A fast-moving Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become one of the largest on record, and the people working to stop it are running a double risk — exposure to a lethal virus, and the hostility of communities who do not trust them. ## A declared emergency The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, led the [World Health Organization to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern](https://www.who.int/emergencies/situations/ebola-outbreak---drc-2026) in mid-May, its highest level of alarm. As of late June, Congolese health authorities had reported more than 1,100 confirmed cases and over 300 deaths, with the northeastern province of Ituri by far the hardest hit, according to figures published by the WHO. Neighboring Uganda has confirmed a smaller number of cases, and isolated imported cases have been reported in Europe. Compounding the danger, the Bundibugyo strain is one for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment, a gap that [Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says](https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/ebola-disease-outbreak-2026-how-msf-responding) makes containment far harder than in recent outbreaks of the more common Zaire strain. ## The work at the graveside Central to the response are the "safe and dignified burial" teams — volunteers and health workers who recover the bodies of suspected victims, handle them in full protective gear, and bury them before relatives can perform the traditional rites that spread the virus at its most contagious. The work is exacting and grim: swabbing, bagging and sealing bodies, then disinfecting everything in between. The [International Committee of the Red Cross](https://www.icrc.org/en/article/drc-ebola-red-cross-volunteers-carry-out-burials-and-build-trust-affected-communities) says its teams pair burials with community outreach, going into neighborhoods to explain the disease and the precautions. In a region scarred by decades of conflict and displacement, that trust-building is as important as the protective suits — and far harder to secure. ## When the responders are the enemy Not everyone believes Ebola is real, and some suspect the masked outsiders who take the dead away of spreading the disease themselves. That mistrust has turned violent. The Red Cross reported that volunteers conducting a burial in Bunia, the capital of Ituri, were attacked by residents, leaving several people injured, and that responders elsewhere have met similar resistance. The pattern echoes earlier epidemics. During the 2013–2016 West Africa outbreak, traditional funeral practices — washing the body, gathering close for days of mourning — were linked to a large share of infections. Health teams in Congo are now racing to fold those hard-won lessons into their work with communities that have never faced Ebola before, often leaning on local clergy and respected figures to vouch for the burial crews. ## A response stretched thin MSF, which says it has deployed hundreds of staff across the affected provinces, warns that the effort is lagging behind the virus, citing gaps in surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing and community engagement. The WHO has stressed that the outbreak will only be contained when communities are brought into the response rather than treated as its subjects. For the volunteers going door to door in Ituri — explaining a disease some of their neighbors deny, and carrying out the dead in the face of anger — that principle is not theoretical. It is the work they return to each morning, at considerable risk to themselves. ## Sources - [Ebola outbreak – DRC 2026](https://www.who.int/emergencies/situations/ebola-outbreak---drc-2026) - [Ebola disease outbreak in 2026: How MSF is responding](https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/ebola-disease-outbreak-2026-how-msf-responding) - [DRC Ebola: Red Cross volunteers carry out burials and build trust](https://www.icrc.org/en/article/drc-ebola-red-cross-volunteers-carry-out-burials-and-build-trust-affected-communities)