Speaking on Monday during a virtual ministerial briefing on viral haemorrhagic fevers, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation is developing faster than response efforts can contain.
“Countries bordering DRC are at especially high risk and should take immediate action,” Tedros warned, adding that he would travel to the DRC on Tuesday, where the outbreak is currently centred.
He further described the situation as rapidly escalating, stating: “The outbreak is spreading rapidly,” noting that Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids and can lead to severe bleeding and organ failure.
“We Are Playing Catch-Up” as Epidemic Outpaces Response
Dr Tedros admitted that containment efforts are struggling to keep pace with the outbreak, which was first detected in the DRC’s eastern provinces on May 15.
He described the crisis as “especially challenging”, explaining that a delay in early detection has significantly complicated control efforts.
“First, the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic. We are urgently scaling up operations but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,” he said via videolink from Geneva.
He also highlighted the deteriorating security situation in eastern DRC as a major barrier to response efforts, noting that ongoing conflict and distrust of external responders are hindering access to affected communities.
“Secondly, the eastern provinces of the DRC… are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months [and] there is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population,” he explained.
No Approved Treatment for Current Strain, WHO Warns
A further concern raised by the WHO chief is the absence of approved vaccines or treatments for the specific strain driving the outbreak.
“Thirdly, there were ‘no approved vaccines or therapeutics’ for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak,” he said, underscoring the difficulty of medical response and containment.
The Bundibugyo strain is one of the less frequently encountered Ebola variants, and its limited treatment options add to global health anxieties as cases rise.
Rising Death Toll and Expanding Regional Threat
According to WHO data, the outbreak has already resulted in at least 10 confirmed deaths and about 220 suspected deaths in the DRC since May 15. A separate fatality has also been recorded in neighbouring Uganda, signalling early cross-border impact.
The African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC, has also warned that the outbreak could spread beyond the immediate epicentre, identifying at least 10 additional African countries at risk alongside the DRC and Uganda. These include several nations in Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, raising concern over wider regional transmission.
Regional Preparedness Under Pressure
Health experts say the combination of delayed detection, ongoing insecurity, and limited medical countermeasures presents a particularly difficult containment scenario.
With the WHO urging immediate action from border countries and Africa CDC expanding its risk list, attention is now shifting toward surveillance at entry points, cross-border coordination, and rapid community-level response systems.
As Dr Tedros noted, the urgency is not abstract but immediate—driven by an outbreak that is already moving faster than the systems designed to contain it.