A short video from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has travelled across social media. It shows a woman in everyday clothes dancing out of an Ebola treatment centre while medical workers in yellow protective suits dance on the other side of a glass partition. The footage was published by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, on 28 October. The centre is in Mongbwalu, a mining town in Ituri province, the area where the latest Ebola outbreak began. Health workers there had just discharged the centre’s last confirmed Ebola patients. For the first time since May, the MSF-run facility had no confirmed Ebola patients in its beds.
A dance on both sides of the glass
The video shows the patient, a woman, moving to music as she leaves the treatment area. Health workers inside the high-risk zone are dressed in full protective gear, including yellow suits, masks, gloves, boots and face shields. Other workers in green medical uniforms dance from the opposite side of the partition. Drums and percussion instruments can be heard in the background, and someone is recording the moment on a mobile phone. Local residents also joined the celebration outside the centre, according to Euronews.
The Associated Press reported that the singing and dancing took place on 20 October. MSF published the footage on 28 October, and it quickly spread across news outlets and social media. MSF described the moment in a post on X.
“Moments of joy marked the last confirmed Ebola patient leaving MSF’s treatment centre, cured.”
— MSF, in a post on X
The celebration was not a claim that the outbreak was over. It was a break from months of pressure inside a facility that had been treating Ebola patients since the outbreak was declared in May. The centre had reached a milestone that few Ebola treatment units reach during a large outbreak: zero confirmed patients under care.
The outbreak behind the empty beds
Mongbwalu sits in Djugu territory in Ituri, in northeastern DRC. The area reported the first cluster of suspected cases in the latest outbreak. DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak on 15 May 2026 after laboratory tests confirmed the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola. The outbreak began in Mongbwalu and Rwampara health zones before spreading to other parts of the country.
The Bundibugyo strain is difficult to contain because there is no licensed vaccine and no specific treatment approved for it, according to the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Response teams have relied on early detection, isolation of patients, contact tracing, safe burials and supportive clinical care. MSF runs the Mongbwalu treatment centre alongside DRC’s Ministry of Health.
The centre’s empty beds did not happen overnight. Dr Richard Lokudo, medical director of Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, told the Congolese news agency ACP on 26 October that the facility had gone seven days without a new confirmed case.
“Since the discharge of our last cured patients, it has now been seven days since we have had a confirmed case at the CTE. We continue to receive suspected cases, but all tests carried out are negative.”
— Dr Richard Lokudo, medical director of Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital
Lokudo explained that the treatment centre and the laboratory counts can differ because a community death was confirmed one day after the two final cured patients left. He said no confirmed Ebola patient was hospitalised at the Mongbwalu centre at that point, but medical teams were still receiving and testing suspected cases. The centre had not stopped working. It had moved into a different phase of surveillance.
The numbers are still serious
One treatment centre with zero confirmed patients does not match the situation across the country. DRC’s outbreak is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in the country’s history and the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, trailing only the 2014–2016 West African epidemic.
As of 27 October, DRC had reported 10,141 confirmed cases and 4,928 deaths, according to ECDC. The agency said 2,708 people had recovered and 999 patients were still hospitalised in isolation. The DRC government’s own figures, released on 27 October, put the total at 10,060 confirmed cases and 4,887 deaths as of 25 October, with a case fatality rate of 48.6 percent.
The outbreak has reached 66 health zones across eight provinces, up from just three health zones in the first days. Ituri province remains the most affected, with 7,247 cases and 3,388 deaths, according to ECDC. Nord-Kivu has reported 2,345 cases and 1,314 deaths. Other affected provinces include Sud-Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uélé, Bas-Uélé, Sud Ubangi and Nord Ubangi.
About 80 percent of new cases are coming from outside known chains of transmission, according to Al Jazeera, which makes contact tracing harder. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said at least 95 percent of cases must come from known contacts for the outbreak to be considered under control. A Phase 2/3 vaccine trial began in Bunia on 23 October, according to ECDC, but no licensed vaccine or targeted treatment for Bundibugyo is available yet.
MSF said its teams are still working across most of the affected provinces.
“Still, dozens of new cases are being detected every day in other parts of the country. MSF teams continue to work tirelessly, across six of the eight affected provinces, to contain the outbreak and save lives.”
— MSF
The outbreak has also crossed borders. Kenya reported nine confirmed cases and two deaths linked to the outbreak as of 26 October, according to ECDC. Nigeria reported one imported case, which was later evacuated to Switzerland for treatment. Uganda recorded 20 cases and two deaths over the summer and has ordered a 21-day quarantine for citizens returning from DRC, according to Al Jazeera. The wider outbreak is no longer a single-country emergency.
Why one empty ward does not end an outbreak
The discharge of the last confirmed patients from Mongbwalu is a milestone for that facility, not a declaration that the outbreak is over. Ebola outbreaks are declared over only after health authorities complete the required surveillance period without new confirmed cases. The Mongbwalu centre is still testing suspected cases and following contacts.
Lokudo made that point directly in his interview with ACP.
“We are not yet at the end of the epidemic. The fact that there are no more confirmed cases at the CTE does not mean the disease has disappeared. We still have contacts we are following. Only the competent authority can officially declare the end of the epidemic.”
— Dr Richard Lokudo
The response has also faced mistrust and violence. Earlier in the outbreak, treatment facilities in Mongbwalu and nearby Rwampara were attacked and set on fire, and 18 Ebola patients fled after tents were set on fire, according to Reuters. Health workers have been attacked in other parts of DRC, including a nurse killed in Bafwasende, Tshopo province, according to Al Jazeera. Those attacks have made it harder to trace contacts and persuade families to bring sick relatives for treatment.
You May Also Like
View all articles about
For the staff in Mongbwalu, the video captures a moment that is rare in an outbreak of this size. The treatment centre had no confirmed patients in its beds, and the people who had spent months caring for Ebola patients could dance with a recovered patient instead of another burial team. The wider outbreak is still active, and hundreds of patients remain in isolation across DRC. The empty ward in Mongbwalu is one small sign of progress inside a response that is still far from finished.
As of 27 October, 999 patients were still hospitalised in isolation across DRC, and 84.5 percent of identified contacts were under follow-up, according to ECDC. MSF said its teams remain deployed across six of the eight affected provinces.
For more clear, human-first stories from around the world, stay with VvipTimes.
Leave a Reply