WHO declares DR Congo Ebola outbreak a global health emergency as deaths near 90

The World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, its highest level of alert, as the death toll approached 90 and cases spread across the border into Uganda.

The outbreak was first reported on Friday in the DRC’s eastern Ituri province. Congolese health authorities said that, as of Saturday, they had recorded 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases, with hundreds more under investigation.

Tests confirmed the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola that has appeared only twice before in Congo. Because it is far less common than the Zaire strain, it is less well understood, and there is no approved vaccine for it.

Health officials traced the first known case to a nurse who arrived at a health facility in Bunia, the capital of Ituri, on April 24 with Ebola-like symptoms. The delay in identifying the virus allowed it to spread within health settings before containment measures began.

Uganda has recorded two laboratory-confirmed cases linked to travellers from the DRC, including one death in the capital, Kampala. The cross-border spread was a central factor in the WHO’s decision to raise its alert.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the declaration was intended to mobilise international support and resources. He stressed that the outbreak “does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency” and advised countries against closing borders or imposing travel restrictions.

The absence of a vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain leaves responders reliant on classic containment measures: isolating patients, tracing contacts, conducting safe burials and tightening infection control in clinics. Vaccines have been central to suppressing recent Zaire-strain outbreaks.

The DRC has faced more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first identified there in 1976. Eastern provinces such as Ituri are particularly difficult terrain for a response, with limited health infrastructure and long-running insecurity.