The true scale of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be significantly larger than official statistics indicate, with many infections going undetected, a senior World Health Organization(WHO) official said on Friday.
WHO Emergencies Director Chikwe Ihekweazu said four out of every five new Ebola cases in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have no known link to existing patients, making it harder for health workers to trace transmission chains.
The latest government data showed 1,792 infections and 625 deaths, while WHO modeling suggests the true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official data suggest.
About 90 percent of all reported cases remain concentrated in Ituri province but the virus has also spread beyond the epicenter to North Kivu, South Kivu and Tshopo provinces.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola strain, for which there is no licensed vaccine or specific therapeutics.
DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreading largely undetected: WHO official
DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreading largely undetected: WHO official
China's foreign trade showed upward momentum in the first half of 2026, with higher port throughput and growth in both imports and exports, according to official data.
According to the country's State Information Center, during the first six months of this year, China's average daily container throughput at ports nationwide increased by 6.7 percent year on year, and the average daily cargo throughput grew by 1.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the country's foreign trade structure has also been optimized, transforming high added-value products into the driving force for export growth.
Latest statistics showed that in the January-to-June period, the average daily number of international cargo flights increased by 4.6 percent year on year, with strong and sustained demand for high-value-added products, such as electronics.
"Facing the complex and ever-changing external economic and trade environment in the first half of the year, the resilience and competitiveness of China's industrial and supply chains have become increasingly evident. Foreign trade has not only achieved steady growth in scale but has also demonstrated a positive trend of 'quality imports and exports.' Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, as the benefits of institutional opening up continue to unfold, new momentum for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade will keep building up, likely providing further certainty and vitality to the global economy," said Wang Bingjie, assistant researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission's Institute of Foreign Economic.
China’s foreign trade shows great momentum in H1
