WHO
Susan Abayomi
The World Health Organization says the current Ebola outbreak has claimed 220 suspected lives, with response teams struggling to keep pace with the spread. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave the update on Monday, warning that delays in detecting cases have left responders “playing catch-up” as infections rise faster than containment efforts. The outbreak, driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain, is centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri and North Kivu provinces.
Tedros said more than 900 suspected cases have been identified so far, including 101 confirmed infections. The numbers have climbed quickly since the outbreak was first announced in late April near Bunia, and surveillance teams are still uncovering cases that went undetected for weeks. The WHO chief said he would travel to Congo on Tuesday to assess the response firsthand, noting that insecurity in the affected provinces is complicating field operations.
The absence of an approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain has left health workers relying on isolation, contact tracing, and supportive care to slow transmission. That limitation matters because the strain has already crossed into Uganda, where two new cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the country’s total to seven. Both new patients are health workers in Kampala, underscoring the risk of healthcare-associated transmission when protective measures fall short.
Attacks on health facilities have further undermined the response. In Ituri, at least three incidents have been reported over the weekend, including two assaults on the same hospital that allowed more than two dozen patients to flee. Some attacks appear linked to denial of the disease and anger over burial restrictions, while others reflect broader distrust of outsiders in communities that have felt neglected during years of conflict. Health officials say the violence is forcing staff to abandon facilities and leaving patients without care.
WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, the third-largest Ebola event on record. The agency raised the risk level for Congo to “very high” while keeping the global risk low, but Tedros stressed that neighboring countries need to act immediately to strengthen surveillance and preparedness. Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan are all on alert given their proximity to Ituri and North Kivu and the movement of people across porous borders.
The outbreak has revived memories of the 2018-2020 Ebola crisis in eastern Congo, which killed more than 2,200 people and saw repeated attacks on treatment centers. In that period, more than 25 health workers died, and misinformation played a major role in fueling resistance to response teams. Similar patterns are emerging now, with rumors and burial customs clashing with medical protocols and undermining containment.
WHO and partners have deployed medical supplies and personnel to the affected areas, including an 18-bed treatment center in Bulape and monoclonal antibody therapies for eligible patients. More than 900 contacts have been identified and are being monitored, but Tedros said the scale of the outbreak means these measures are still behind the curve. He called for urgent scaling up of operations and for border countries to treat the situation as a regional threat.
For now, the focus is on slowing transmission in conflict-hit communities where displacement and insecurity make standard containment harder. Tedros warned that the epidemic is likely to get worse before it improves, and that the window for preventing wider spread is narrowing.
