Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 18:53 UTC
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, an Ebola species for which no approved vaccines or treatments exist
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Tuesday before the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva that “the magnitude and speed” with which the Ebola outbreak is spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are alarming, with more than 543 suspected cases, 131 deaths linked to transmission, and 33 laboratory-confirmed infections. Two further cases have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda, both involving Congolese citizens who had crossed the border, one of whom has died. The WHO director convened the organization's Emergency Committee to formulate containment recommendations.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, an Ebola species for which no approved vaccines or treatments exist. The WHO representative in the DRC, Anne Ancia, said a vaccine could be developed in approximately two months, in coordination with academic institutions such as the University of Oxford, although she warned that the Ervebo vaccine produced by Merck and pre-qualified by the WHO is only effective against the Zaire strain detected in 2019. Diagnostic capacity is limited: only six tests per hour can currently be carried out to detect the new strain. The agency has shipped twelve tons of medical supplies to the country and six more were scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.
