WHO
Olamilekan Abayomi
The World Health Organization has raised the alarm over a worsening Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with nearly 750 suspected cases now under surveillance. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on May 22, 2026, that the risk within Congo has been upgraded to “very high” at the national level. Confirmed cases stand at 82 with seven deaths, but surveillance data suggest the epidemic is much larger than official figures capture. The 177 suspected deaths point to gaps in early detection and testing in rural areas where the virus appears to be spreading undetected.
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment. That absence of medical countermeasures has raised the stakes for containment, especially given the strain was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern last weekend. Tedros said the potential for rapid spread is “high, very high,” which shifted the WHO’s risk assessment from high to very high for Congo, high for the region, and low at the global level.
Most of the burden is concentrated in Ituri province in eastern DRC, where weak health infrastructure, population displacement, and armed conflict have complicated the response. Health workers report that insecurity has blocked contact tracing and limited access to affected communities. The situation was compounded this week when youths in Rwampara set fire to an Ebola treatment center after being stopped from retrieving the body of a friend believed to have died from the virus. Such incidents recall the hundreds of attacks on health facilities during the 2018-2020 outbreak and underscore how local customs and mistrust can undermine control measures.
Neighboring Uganda has also recorded spillover, with two confirmed cases in people who traveled from Congo, one of them fatal. Ugandan authorities responded with intense contact tracing and the cancellation of a mass gathering, steps Tedros said appear to have contained further spread for now. The regional risk remains high, prompting border screenings and heightened surveillance across Central Africa. International exposure has been reported too: a U.S. aid worker infected in Congo was transferred to Germany for care, and a second American high-risk contact was moved to the Czech Republic under isolation protocols.
The international response is scaling up. The UN released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate efforts in Congo and neighboring countries. The U.S. pledged $23 million and said it would fund up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in affected areas of Congo and Uganda, though Ugandan officials said they had not been informed of specific sites yet. WHO also deployed additional personnel to Ituri to support communities at the epicenter and is appealing for $21 million to interrupt transmission chains and mitigate the impact on public health.
WHO’s chief scientist Sylvie Briand said an experimental antiviral called Obeldesivir could be used for contacts to prevent them from developing disease, though it remains under strict protocol. The lack of a licensed vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain means containment relies heavily on early case detection, isolation, safe burials, and community engagement. Supplies are being rushed to Ituri, where many people have been displaced by armed groups, but frontline staff continue to struggle with shortages and resistance.
The outbreak has revived memories of Congo’s 2018-2020 epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri, the second-deadliest on record with nearly 2,300 deaths. That outbreak was prolonged by violence, attacks on health workers, and deep mistrust of medical teams. Authorities in Ituri have now banned funeral wakes, a measure that sparked clashes with residents trying to recover a victim’s body. The tension highlights the difficulty of enforcing strict infection control practices that clash with burial customs in affected communities.
For now, WHO maintains that the global risk remains low, but the agency has urged vigilance as surveillance improves and numbers change. Tedros described the situation in Congo as “deeply worrisome” and said the true scale of transmission is likely underestimated. With armed instability, mobility of populations, and limited medical resources in play, health officials are racing to prevent the Bundibugyo strain from becoming a national outbreak that could spill further across borders.
