The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially labeled the Ebola outbreak in Congo and neighboring Uganda as a public health emergency of international concern. This declaration comes after reports of over 300 suspected cases and 88 confirmed deaths due to the rare virus.
Despite the severity, WHO clarified that this outbreak does not rise to the level of a pandemic emergency akin to COVID-19 and thus, advised against closing international borders.
In a statement on X, WHO confirmed a laboratory-verified Ebola case in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, situated approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the outbreak’s center in Ituri province. This incidence hints at a potentially broader spread. The patient had traveled from Ituri, and additional suspected cases have been identified in the populous North Kivu province, which shares a border with Ituri.
Additionally, Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, announced its first confirmed Ebola case. According to local authorities, the infected individual had traveled from Ituri province and is currently isolated. Goma, a city that witnessed rapid escalation of conflict in early 2025 due to clashes between Congolese forces and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group, has seen hundreds of thousands displaced.
Ebola, though rare, is a highly contagious disease often leading to severe and fatal outcomes. It spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen.
WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. By WHO’s standards, it shows the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread and it requires a coordinated international response.
In a separate statement on X on Sunday, the WHO Regional Office for Africa said that a team of 35 experts from the WHO and the Congolese Ministry of Health had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, along with 7 tons of emergency medical supplies and equipment.
The global response to previous declarations has been mixed. In 2024, when WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said that it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.
It’s hard to treat a variant of Ebola
Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.
Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, WHO said.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second time was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
Dr. Richard Kitenge, chief of operations at the Centre des Opérations d’Urgence de Santé Publique, part of Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, recently arrived in Ituri. He said that while the risks may be high, Congo has weathered previous outbreaks.
“We have managed enough epidemics in the country without treatment. The Zaire virus, which we managed, was also untreated in several epidemics, and not everyone died,” Kitenge told The Associated Press.
Conflict and migration complicate efforts
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said Saturday that a high number of active cases remain in the community, particularly in Mongwalu, where the first cases were reported, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts.”
Violent conflict with militants, some backed by the Islamic State group, as well as constant population movement because of mining, both within Congo and across the border in Uganda, have also posed a major challenge to response efforts.
Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Ituri province, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa CDC reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths in Congo.
“There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The two cases in Uganda include one person whom officials said had traveled from Congo and died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and another WHO said had also traveled from Congo.
WHO said the high percentage of positive cases among samples tested, the spread to Kampala and Uganda and the clusters of deaths across Ituri “all point toward a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.”
CDC says risk to Americans low
U.S. health officials describe the risk to Americans as low, but did not directly answer questions about whether any Americans may have been exposed to the Ebola virus in Africa.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with other health officials “to ensure the outbreak is managed and prevent further spread of Ebola,” said Dr. Satish Pillai, the manager of the CDC’s response to the outbreak, in a call with reporters Sunday.
The agency has an office with 30 personnel in Congo, and is working to deploy additional CDC workers to respond to the outbreak, Pillai said.
The agency on Friday issued travel advisories urging Americans traveling in Congo and Uganda to avoid people who have symptoms like fever, muscle pain and rash. The CDC also is “putting in appropriate measures for identifying individuals with any symptoms” at ports of entry, Pillai said, but CDC officials did not immediately respond to follow-up questions asking for more detail.
Congo outbreak killed 50 before it was detected
Kaseya said that slow detection delayed the response and gave the virus time to spread.
“This outbreak started in April. So far, we don’t know the index case. It means we don’t know how far is the magnitude of this outbreak,” Kaseya said, using a term for the first detectable case of an epidemic.
The earliest known suspected case, a 59-year-old man, developed symptoms on April 24 and died at a hospital in Ituri on April 27.
By the time health authorities were first alerted to the outbreak on social media on May 5, 50 deaths had already been recorded, the Africa CDC said.
WHO said at least four deaths have been reported among healthcare workers who showed Ebola symptoms.