The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, updated this Tuesday the balance of the Ebola outbreak declared last week in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raising the suspected cases to more than 500 and suspected deaths to 130, and including at least one deceased in Uganda, which led him to declare on Sunday a "public emergency" of international scope.
Before the 79th World Health Assembly, Tedros detailed that "so far 30 cases have been confirmed in the Congolese province of Ituri," to which two others confirmed by Uganda in its capital, Kampala, are added, both originating from DRC, in addition to a US citizen who has already been transferred to Germany.
"These figures will change as operations on the ground expand, which includes strengthening surveillance, contact tracing, and laboratory testing," he stressed, before warning that "cases have been reported in urban areas, such as Kampala and the city of Goma," which increases the risk of the virus spreading due to the additional difficulties for its containment.
The head of the WHO also emphasized that "deaths have been recorded among health workers, which points to transmission associated with health work," and recalled that "there is significant population movement in the Ituri area," a scenario of "great insecurity" due to the resurgence of the conflict since late 2025.
Tedros specified that "more than 100,000 people have been newly displaced" by the violence in the region and stressed that "it is already known what displacement means during Ebola outbreaks," warning of the added risk derived from "there being no vaccines or treatment" against the variant responsible for this outbreak, Bundibugyo.
In this vein, he argued that "in the absence of a vaccine, there are many other measures that countries can adopt to stop the spread of this virus and save lives," citing among them "risk communication and community engagement."
Likewise, he has expressed: "I thank the Government of Uganda for postponing the celebrations of Martyrs' Day, which can gather up to two million people, due to the risk posed by the epidemic," and has admitted that his decision to declare an international alert on Sunday without previously convening the emergency committee is unprecedented.
"It is not something I did lightly," he stressed, remarking that "he is deeply concerned about the magnitude and speed of the epidemic." "We will hold an Emergency Committee today for the issuance of temporary recommendations," he added, before announcing the release of 3.4 million dollars (about 2.9 million euros) for the response to the outbreak, bringing the total mobilized to 3.9 million (about 3.4 million euros).
On Monday, the public health agency of the African Union (AU), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), raised to more than 100 the deaths linked to the Ebola epidemic caused by the Bundibugyo strain in the DRC and Uganda, and declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Interest (PHEIC).
The average case fatality rate of the Ebola virus is around 50%, with a generally abrupt onset of symptoms, characterized by fever, fatigue, malaise, muscle aches, and headache and sore throat, which may be followed by vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, skin rash, and signs of impaired kidney and liver function.
The DRC, which in December 2025 declared the previous Ebola outbreak in the country, in the Kasai region, concluded, is considered the State with the greatest global experience in managing this disease, having faced more than a dozen outbreaks since the virus was identified in 1976 in a double epidemic episode, one of whose epicenters was located in the Congolese town of Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, which gave its name to the pathology.