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2w ago

WHO Chief Visits Congo as Rare Bundibugyo Ebola Outbreak Outpaces Response

Spread into multiple eastern provinces and neighbouring Uganda is straining health services as WHO prioritises candidate drugs and vaccines for rapid trials.

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Workers load World Health Organization (WHO) emergency supplies onto a United Nations plane in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, May 20, 2026, headed for Congo to combat the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrives in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 30, 2026. The World Health Organization's director general had earlier announced he was coming to Bunia, capital of Ituri province, to "help" and "listen to" the people facing the worst of the outbreak.The highly contagious haemorrhagic fever is already present in three eastern DRC provinces and in neighbouring Uganda, where nine confirmed infections, including one death, have been recorded.There have been at least 1,077 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including 246 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on May 28. (Photo by Glody MURHABAZI / AFP via Getty Images) The highly contagious haemorrhagic fever is already present in three eastern DRC provinces and in neighbouring Uganda, where nine confirmed infections, including one death, have been recorded. There have been at least 1,077 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including 246 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on May 28. (Photo by Glody MURHABAZI / AFP)
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Overview

  • Since mid-May the Bundibugyo strain has produced roughly 900 to 1,100 suspected cases and more than 200 suspected deaths in eastern DRC with confirmed infections rising sharply and cases reported in Uganda.
  • WHO Director-General Tedros travelled to Kinshasa and Bunia this week to press for community engagement, call for a ceasefire to allow access, and show international support for overstretched responders.
  • The outbreak is challenging because Bundibugyo has no licensed vaccine or strain-specific treatment so WHO has shortlisted candidate therapeutics and two vaccines for urgent clinical assessment.
  • Response operations are being hampered by armed conflict, attacks on health sites, community resistance over burial rites, and shortages of PPE and lab kits that have created diagnostic backlogs and slowed containment.
  • If transmission continues to outpace aid the region faces wider spread and higher fatalities, and the crisis is already prompting contested policy moves such as a paused U.S. plan for a quarantine facility in Kenya and border restrictions by neighbours.