The United States Government has discussed with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, "coordination" and joint "response efforts" to the Ebola outbreak declared in mid-May in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an episode that has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to activate an international health alert.
The spokesperson for the US Department of State, Thomas Pigott, indicated that the head of the country's diplomacy, Marco Rubio, held a conversation with Von der Leyen "to discuss US and European coordination and response efforts" to the outbreak, which has also caused infections in Uganda.
"The Department's (of State) top priority and main objective remains to protect the health of the American people and prevent this Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores," he stressed in a brief statement, without providing further details on the content of the call.
From Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to Europa Press the telephone conversation between Von der Leyen and Rubio, focused on the evolution of the Ebola outbreak, and emphasized that the bloc's action is articulated in close collaboration with the WHO, as well as with other international organizations and partners.
In this regard, she stressed that public health protection constitutes an "absolute priority" and pointed out that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control maintains that the risk to European citizens is very low, therefore current border controls are considered adequate.
DRC authorities raised the number of confirmed Ebola deaths above one hundred on Tuesday within the framework of the latest outbreak, detected in the northeast of the country, to which are added two more deaths in Uganda, while national and international efforts to curb the spread of the virus continue.
The Congolese Executive detailed that, to date, 550 cases confirmed by laboratory tests have been registered, with 101 deaths, in addition to 309 patients still in isolation and 19 people who have managed to overcome the disease. To these figures are added 19 confirmed cases in Ugandan territory.
The average case fatality rate of the Ebola virus is around 50%, with initial symptoms that can appear suddenly, such as fever, tiredness, general malaise, muscle aches and headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, skin rash, and signs of impaired kidney and liver function.
DRC —which in December 2025 declared the previous Ebola outbreak in its territory, in the Kasai region, to be over— is considered the country with the most global experience in managing this disease, after having faced more than a dozen outbreaks since the virus was identified in 1976 in a double episode, one of whose epicenters was located in Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, which would end up giving its name to the pathology.