Ebola outbreak ‘spreading rapidly’ as suspects rise, WHO chief says – National
The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is “spreading rapidly” and poses a “very high” risk at the national level.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the UN health organization is revising its assessment to “very high” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which was previously considered high.
The risk remains high in the regional distribution and low in the global level, he told reporters in Geneva.
Ghebreyesus, who called the Ebola outbreak “very worrying,” said that 82 cases have been confirmed in Congo, with seven deaths, “but we know that the epidemic in the DRC is very large.”
He also revealed that there are now approximately 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, which is up from Wednesday’s update of 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths.
“The situation in Uganda is stable, with two confirmed cases of people who came from the DRC, and one death,” he added. “Measures taken in Uganda, including contact tracing and canceling the commemoration of Martyrs’ Day, appear to have been successful in preventing the spread of the virus.”
Ghebreyesus said that the American man who was working in the DRC has been confirmed to have it and has been transferred to Germany for treatment.
“We are also aware of reports today about another high-risk US citizen being transferred to the Czech Republic,” he added.
The governments of the DRC and Uganda are leading the response to the Ebola outbreak, with support from WHO and partners.
“In addition to our international staff in the DRC, we have so far deployed 22 international staff in the field, including some of our most experienced people,” he told reporters. “And we released US $3.9 million to the Contingency Fund for Emergencies.”
The head of the WHO said that the organization is also in contact with the UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, who has allocated 60 million dollars for this response.
“On the ground, we are supporting the national authorities with all the pillars of the response, including contact tracing, establishing treatment centers, communicating with vulnerable people and communicating with the community and more,” he said.
WHO is also establishing a team to support the management of continental incidents and in the coming days, it will publish a multi-agency strategy for preparedness and response plan, which is compatible with the national plans of the DRC, Uganda and other partners.
There are no approved vaccines or treatments
Unlike many previous Ebola outbreaks, which were caused by the Zaire virus, this outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, Ghebreyesus said.
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Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo region during the 2007-08 violence that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
“Yesterday, WHO called the leaders of several partner organizations under the Medical Countermeasures Network, to review the pipeline of vaccines, treatment and diagnosis,” said Ghebreyesus.
The WHO R&D Blueprint convened its technical advisory group on therapeutics and recommended prioritizing two monoclonal antibodies to advance to clinical trials.
The advisory group recommended testing the antiviral obeldesivir in a clinical trial as post-exposure prophylaxis in high-risk contacts, according to Ghebreyesus.
Clinical trials are now being conducted in collaboration with the Africa CDC and the Collaborative Open Research Consortium on filoviruses.
WHO is also consulting with its partners on the vaccine development and production pipeline.
Sylvie Briand, a senior scientist at the WHO, said the organization is reselling drugs that were used to treat different types of the Ebola virus.
“We make a list of all the things that may be useful or that are still being drafted and the committee looks at prioritizing them using a number of criteria,” she said. “The main way is their safety. Then we look at ways to use them. We haven’t reached this stage of the process for them to be used because the committee is only looking at existing drugs.”
Briand said the next steps require discussions with health authorities and other partners to see how they can be implemented.
He called the antiviral obeldesivir a “promising treatment” but would have to be used under “very strict protocols.”
Vasee Moorthy, the WHO’s chief scientific and strategic adviser, said the WHO already “has a priority for prevention of cases and that is oral obeldesivir that has been talked about.”
Earlier this week, Moorthy said that one candidate for the vaccine has six to nine months to be available in clinical trials.
One is being developed by the University of Oxford and India’s Serum Institute and was getting doses “in production as we speak,” he added.
But Moorthy said there is no data from animal testing to support the vaccine.
“It is possible that doses will be available for clinical testing in two to three months but there is a lot of uncertainty about how promising that person is,” he said.
“It will depend on the animal data whether that is considered a promising vaccine for Bundibugyo research, so that’s all I can say about the pipeline now.”
Citizens set fire to an Ebola treatment center in the Congo
The head of the WHO spoke about an Ebola treatment center in the city at the center of the outbreak in eastern Congo that was burnt down on Thursday.
The arson incident in Rwampara took place after people were prevented from collecting the body of a local man, according to the police chief.
The bodies of those who died from Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread as people prepare for burials and gather at funerals. The dangerous practice of burying suspects is controlled by the authorities where possible.
Deputy Chief Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of the Department of Public Security in Ituri province, said the youth accused of setting the fire did not understand the rules for burying a suspected Ebola victim.
Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026.
AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne
“His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home and bury it even though the instructions of the authorities during the Ebola virus outbreak were clear,” Mukendi told the Associated Press. “All bodies must be buried according to regulations.”
On Friday, Ghebreyesus said “there is a great distrust of foreign authorities among local people.”
“As you know, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu where this outbreak occurred are very insecure, with intense fighting in recent months, which has caused more than 100,000 people to be displaced,” said Ghebreyesus. “In all provinces, about four million people are in need of emergency assistance, two million are left homeless, and ten million are facing extreme hunger.”
“Just yesterday there was an incident with security guards at the hospital in Ituri, where tents and medical supplies were set on fire,” he continued. “Building trust in affected communities is critical to a successful response, and is one of our top priorities.”
Ghebreyesus said WHO is committed to ensuring that essential health services in affected communities are “maintained and strengthened, based on their needs.”
— via files from The Associated Press
