WHO and Africa CDC Launch $518 Million Six‑Month Plan to Fight Bundibugyo Ebola

Overview

• The WHO and Africa CDC announced the joint continental response on Friday, June 5, to run from June through November with a $518 million budget and immediate implementation in affected and at‑risk countries.
• Health authorities report the outbreak began in Ituri province and has grown quickly, with roughly 450–500 confirmed cases in the DRC and cases confirmed in Uganda, and at least 82 deaths recorded.
• No vaccine or therapy is licensed specifically for the Bundibugyo variant, prompting emergency R&D and diagnostics efforts such as Moderna’s CEPI‑backed vaccine work, BioFire’s test scale‑up, and Gavi holding emergency doses.
• Donors have pledged about $315.8 million so far, leaving a substantial shortfall against the new plan and uncertainty over whether existing commitments are aligned to the six‑month strategy.
• Response operations face major limits from weeks of delayed detection, fragile local health systems, expanding insecurity and attacks on responders, and U.S. CDC modelling warns the outbreak could become far larger if case finding and isolation are not accelerated.