DR Congo’s deadliest Ebola outbreak still at high risk of spreading: WHO

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday in a social media post after meeting with the WHO emergency committee responsible for assessing the severity of the Bundibugyo outbreak. The announcement comes three months after the health experts first raised the level of alarm.

The number of recorded cases surpassed 5,000 on late Tuesday, DRC government data showed, while the death toll exceeded 2,300 over the weekend. This makes it the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history since the 2018-2020 Zaire outbreak.

Opening the expert meeting, Tedros described an outbreak of “unprecedented speed”, warning that “the risk of further national and international spread remains high”.

Previously confined to five provinces – Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé and Tshopo – the disease has now reached a sixth province, Bas-Uélé in the north, mounting fears of a spread into neighbouring Central African Republic.

Uganda managed to halt transmission after an initial spillover. Recently, a traveller to France was reported to have carried the virus. “Borders may slow a response; they do not stop a virus,” said Tedros.

People dying ‘outside contact lists’

Dr Thierno Baldé, the WHO’s incident manager for the Ebola response, said that population movements driven by insecurity stemming from the conflict and the transportation of patients and dead bodies were contributing to the quick spread. Mistrust also persists among communities who resist going to treatment centres, while attacks against ambulances and health providers from the communities themselves have become recurrent, Baldé confirmed, speaking to Geneva reporters on Tuesday from Bunia, the DRC’s single worst affected city.

Tedros also echoed concerns about people dying “at home, in their communities, outside treatment centres, and outside known contact lists”.

“Every death like that points to a chain of transmission we have not yet found. Until every chain is found and broken, the epidemic will continue,” he told the committee.

Baldé said efforts were underway to address these issues and scale up the response, including the deployment of 100 additional WHO epidemiologists along with 500 help community workers and an increase in the number of beds available to treat patients.

Funding also remains an issue. So far, an appeal for $115 million has met 60 per cent of its target, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said. 

In his post on X, Tedros urged governments and other actors “to scale up efforts even further, and raise the resources needed to protect communities over the coming months”.

The emergency committee is expected to publish an update in the coming days with detailed recommendations for the DRC and other countries at risk.