WHO representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Anne Ancia, told reporters in Geneva that there are more than 500 suspected cases, including 130 suspected deaths, but only 30 cases have been confirmed in the country so far.
The agency is working closely with authorities and sending more testing kits to eastern DRC to identify cases of Bundibugyo virus infection, a species of Ebola virus for which there are no vaccines or treatments.
“We have great uncertainty about the number of infections and how far the virus has spread,” Dr. Ancia said.
first cases
Speaking from Bunia, in Ituri province, where the cases were initially detected, Dr Ancia said the outbreak also reached North Kivu, with cases confirmed in Butembo and Goma. Uganda has also confirmed two imported cases.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday morning declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. He has expressed concern about the “scale and speed of the epidemic.”
There is still uncertainty about how and where the outbreak began.
“I don’t think we have ‘patient zero’ right now,” said Dr. Ancia. “What we know for now is that on May 5 there was… a person who died in Bunia. The body was returned [to] Mongbwalu… and put him in a coffin. And then the family decided that the coffin wasn’t worth it for the person. And that’s why… they changed the coffin. And then there was the funeral, and that’s where it all started.”
The detection of the first cases was delayed by the fact that local testing in Bunia returned negative results for the Zaire strain of Ebola. The wide range of symptoms – fever, fatigue, diarrhea and vomiting – also complicated the task of making a quick diagnosis, with the additional difficulty that the nosebleeds that are also associated with the disease did not begin until the fifth day of infection, the WHO official explained.
Advance in Kinshasa
In the end, it was only through testing in Kinshasa that the presence of the Bundibugyo virus was finally revealed.
Dr. Ancia said international attention is being paid to potential vaccines or treatment candidates that could help combat the outbreak. A WHO technical advisory group was scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon “to provide further recommendations to the WHO and its Member States on which potential vaccine should be prioritized,” he explained.
Ervebo, a vaccine against the Ebola virus from Zaire, is being studied, the WHO representative said, but “it would take two months until it is available.”
While a vaccine could provide additional prevention and protection to affected populations, the key to containing transmission lies in grassroots work within communities to raise awareness, combat misinformation and ensure compliance with health measures, especially around funerals.
“If we use coercive measures and the population does not agree, we will see bodies disappear. We will see suspected cases refusing to go to hospitals and health centers,” Dr. Ancia warned, underscoring the continued commitment of health workers to schools, churches and community leaders.
WHO is supporting the Government-led response with more than 40 health professionals on the ground and by deploying additional supplies and diagnostic capacity, in what remains a “highly complex epidemiological, operational and humanitarian context”, characterized by insecurity and displacement, the WHO representative said.
Vulnerability of internally displaced persons
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that the affected provinces of Ituri and North Kivu are home to more than two million internally displaced persons and returnees, while health capacity remains weakened by the conflict.
There is also concern for refugees living in the affected areas. In Ituri, some 11,000 South Sudanese refugees need preventative care, while in North Kivu’s capital, the rebel-held city of Goma, more than 2,000 Rwandan and Burundian refugees need health supplies.
The most recent outbreak of the Zaire Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ended in December 2025, and the trauma of a major epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri in 2018-19 lingers among the population.
Dr. Ancia emphasized that while it may be two months until a vaccine is available, “it is not two months before the outbreak disappears.”
“Remember the previous one, it was two years,” he warned.
