Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, June 17, 2026 — Over a month since the Ebola outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, women and girls face a double threat: a higher risk of contracting the virus itself and heightened exposure to sexual violence and exploitation. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is warning that without protection measures in place now, the most vulnerable will pay the highest price and the response itself is likely to fail.
Traditionally, women and girls are often the primary caretakers of the sick, placing them at far greater exposure to Ebola than any other group. During the 2018–2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women and girls accounted for nearly two-thirds of reported infections. In Liberia's 2014 outbreak, women represented up to three-quarters of Ebola-related deaths in some communities. Current data for the 2026 outbreak indicates that more than 54 percent of Ebola cases have been women and girls, underscoring that Ebola remains a caretaker’s disease. Furthermore, the demands of increased water collection, hygiene, and care often force women and girls to travel further on foot, raising their exposure to sexual violence and harassment. For survivors of violence, fear of infection, stigma, and disrupted health services create additional barriers to accessing care, which is ever more limited when the nascent health systems are focused on the outbreak. The conditions that enable exploitation and abuse; an influx of staff and resources, acute need, and stark power imbalances, are present from the very first day of any large-scale emergency response.
"You cannot contain Ebola while leaving women and girls exposed to exploitation. In every outbreak we have responded to, we have seen what happens when protection is treated as an afterthought," said Weihui Wang, IRC’s Emergency Protection Technical Advisor. "Communities that do not trust the people delivering aid disengage from life-saving services. They stop coming forward for surveillance, treatment, and contact tracing. Getting protection right from day one is what helps to make the response work."
Pregnant women face the gravest risks. When a pregnant woman contracts Ebola, her chances of survival are devastatingly slim. The case fatality rate reaches 80%. Fear of transmission and the absence of safe gynecological care are already deterring women from seeking facility-based services. From experience in previous outbreaks, the IRC knows that disruptions to routine health services drive significant increases in maternal and child mortality. Children also face the risk of becoming orphans and being displaced, and require child-specific safeguarding measures from the start.
For years, the IRC has built protection against sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) into its Ebola responses from day one, not as a standalone program, but threaded through infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement activities. All staff and community workers deployed in the responses receive PSEA training, a clear code of conduct, and active supervision before they engage with communities.
Prevention alone is not enough. When harm occurs, survivors must be able to access clinical care, psychosocial support, and referral systems immediately. These resources take time to build and must be in place before community-facing work begins. Communities must also know, from the beginning, that they have the right to assistance free from exploitation and abuse and that there are safe, confidential ways to report concerns.