The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, has so far claimed more than 700 lives among nearly 2,000 confirmed infections, according to the latest official figures released on Tuesday. However, the WHO says its modelling indicates the number of infections could be two to four times greater than the reported cases.
The growing dispute over unpaid wages has added pressure to an already overstretched response. Health workers stationed in some of the worst-affected areas say they have not received salaries since the outbreak began despite continuing to care for infected patients under difficult and dangerous conditions.
At the Ebola treatment centre in Rwampara, one of the outbreak's epicentres in Ituri Province, health workers staged a protest on Monday by burning tyres and temporarily blocking access to the facility.
"We've been treating Ebola patients without pay since May 15. We continue to do so because that is our oath, but we are working in very difficult conditions," doctor Pascal Bahoya told AFP.
Medical staff at the centre warned that they would begin a full-scale strike, with no minimum services maintained, if authorities failed to respond to their 48-hour ultimatum demanding payment of salaries and allowances.
During a recent visit to Ituri, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba acknowledged that delays in salary payments had occurred and assured health workers that the administrative issues responsible for the situation would be resolved.
The strike threat comes as frontline medical teams struggle to contain the spread of the highly infectious virus across the vast Central African nation, where decades of conflict and an underfunded healthcare system have complicated disease control efforts.
According to the National Public Health Institute (INSP), at least 112 healthcare workers have contracted Ebola during the outbreak, while 35 have died, highlighting the risks faced by medical personnel.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment. Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals and can cause severe internal bleeding, organ failure and death.
The disease has now spread beyond Ituri to North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uele provinces, raising concerns about wider regional transmission. Ituri also shares borders with Uganda and South Sudan, with Uganda having already reported 20 cases, including two deaths.
As of July 12, health authorities said 727 patients were receiving treatment in Ebola treatment centres across affected regions. A clinical trial evaluating two potential treatments is also underway as authorities seek to improve survival rates.
WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu said current surveillance data likely captures only a fraction of the outbreak.
"The scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found," he told reporters in Geneva.
The WHO believes the outbreak had been spreading for several months before it was officially detected, making it difficult to determine its true extent. Humanitarian organisations working in affected communities have also suggested that official figures may significantly underestimate the actual number of infections.
Despite the challenges, the international community has mobilised $1.5 billion to support the Ebola response in the DRC, where health authorities continue to battle the outbreak amid chronic shortages of funding, medical supplies and healthcare infrastructure.