WHO sounds global alarm as DR Congo Ebola outbreak passes 5,000 cases
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed 5,000 cases, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that the epidemic remains a global health emergency and is spreading faster than health teams can contain it.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the international community to step up support following an emergency meeting on Tuesday, warning that the outbreak is “far from being under control,” Al Jazeera reported.
“It had a big head start, and we are still playing catch-up,” Tedros said.
More than 2,320 people have died in the outbreak, making it the deadliest Ebola epidemic in the DRC’s history. The death toll has now exceeded the 2,299 fatalities recorded during the country’s 2018-2020 outbreak.
Health officials are particularly concerned because new chains of transmission continue to emerge. Tedros said the outbreak was spreading at an “unprecedented speed” and warned that the locations of recent deaths suggest that some transmission networks have yet to be identified.
“The epidemic will continue until every chain is found and broken,” he said.
The outbreak is the DRC’s 17th Ebola epidemic and has been made more difficult to control by several factors, including armed conflict, misinformation, distrust of health workers and local cultural practices.
Another major challenge is the virus itself. The current outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment.
The WHO has also warned that the outbreak began spreading considerably earlier than initially recognised. Although authorities officially declared the epidemic on May 17, genetic sequencing of virus samples indicates that transmission began in February, around three months earlier.
Health teams are now expanding efforts to identify potential transmission routes within communities.
WHO medic Thierno Balde said motorbike riders have become a particular focus because they frequently transport patients and, in some cases, bodies of people who have died.
Hand-washing stations and disinfectant have been provided, but response teams are now seeking to involve motorbike riders directly in surveillance and community response efforts.
The strategy reflects a broader push by health authorities to work more closely with local communities, particularly in areas where distrust of health workers and misinformation have complicated previous Ebola responses.
At the same time, scientists are racing to develop and test protection against the Bundibugyo strain.
The first volunteer to receive an experimental vaccine for the strain was vaccinated in the United Kingdom last month. Hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine, developed by Oxford University scientists and manufactured in India, have already been produced and are ready for potential deployment if clinical trials demonstrate that the vaccine is effective.
For now, WHO officials are warning that the window to contain the epidemic is narrowing.
With infections continuing to rise and previously unidentified transmission chains still being discovered, health authorities face a race to locate infected people, trace their contacts and prevent the virus from spreading into new communities.
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