BUNIA, Congo (AP) — The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record started in February, months before it was officially declared in mid-May, the World Health Organization said Monday as responders in eastern Congo struggle to catch up.
The WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, told a news conference that sequencing indicated the outbreak's start. He said some cases early on were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid.
“So we are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi said.
Confirmed cases of Ebola in this outbreak have reached 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths, according to the latest government figures.
The outbreak declared on May 15 is unlike most previous ones for Ebola because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments. Early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola, contributing to delays.
The outbreak is unfolding in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real. Health teams travel remote, unpaved roads and have reported shortages of protective gear, while a vast population of displaced people struggles to find reliable water sources for washing hands.
This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths out of at least 28,000 cases. That one took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.
Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.
Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to fight it. New cases are doubling in some hot spots, Tedros said on X after meeting with officials in the capital, Kinshasa.
Health authorities have said between 60% and 70% of new cases are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate.
Access to healthcare in the region already had been challenged by years of rebel conflict in one of Congo’s most remote and vulnerable areas, near the borders of South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. Now some pregnant women and others are avoiding health centers for fear of the virus, at risk to their lives.
Several past Ebola outbreaks have also been declared weeks or months late, including the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak. That outbreak was declared in March 2014, although the first human case later was found to have occurred in December 2013.
Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.
This version corrects the second reference to the WHO director-general to Tedros.
Wiza Bondele, a health worker on the prevention and control team, seen at work in Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)
Wiza Bondele, Right, a health worker on the prevention and control team, seen at work in Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)
Wiza Bondele, centre, a health worker on the prevention and control team, seen at work in Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is drifting near its all-time high on Monday, while oil prices rise on uncertainty about when the Strait of Hormuz could reopen and get the global flow of crude going again.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% after flipping between small gains and losses, coming off its record set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 61 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.
Momentum is slowing for stocks following a rally powered by reports showing profits soared during the spring for big U.S. companies. Earnings per share for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to be 50% higher from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That would be the best growth since five years ago, when the economy was roaring out of the chasm created by COVID.
Berkshire Hathaway is one of the latest companies to deliver a stronger profit for the last quarter than analysts expected, and the company built by legendary investor Warren Buffett said over the weekend that it’s also invested some of its massive pile of cash into stocks under its new CEO, Greg Abel.
Berkshire Hathaway has been famous for buying stocks at what it considers low prices, and criticism has been high that U.S. stocks generally look too expensive. But when they report strong profits, it helps them look less pricey.
Berkshire Hathaway’s stock rose 2.4%, and its immense size made it one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 index.
MarineMax jumped 45.9% after the retailer, marina operator and superyacht services provider said it agreed to sell itself for about $1.5 billion in cash to a portfolio company of Blackstone.
Varex Imaging leaped 48.3% after Teledyne Technologies said it would buy the maker of X-ray imaging components for $18.90 per share in cash.
Weighing down on Wall Street was Intel, which fell 4.2% after saying it may sell $15 billion of its stock. Such a move would dilute the ownership stakes of existing investors, and Intel said it would likely use the cash for investments to take advantage of the huge spending underway on artificial-intelligence technology.
In the oil market, the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 2.8% to $85.86. It had swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.
But hopes are turning toward caution again, and the price of Brent is back to where it was earlier this month, as well as in mid-July, mid-June and in the first week of the war in March.
Higher oil prices push inflation upward, and the main event for Wall Street this week will likely be Wednesday’s update on how bad inflation was last month. Economists expect it to show inflation slowed to 3.4% from 3.5% in June.
A slowdown would mean less pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow. They would also undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
A report on Friday showing unexpectedly weak hiring across the United States lowered Wall Street’s expectations for an upcoming hike to interest rates. But traders still see a 46% chance the Fed will raise its main interest rate at its next meeting in September, according to data from CME Group.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.68% from 4.65% late Friday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after rising in much of Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1% for one of the world’s biggest moves.
AP Business Writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
A general view shows the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A general view shows the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
