WHO declares Ebola emergency as cases spread across Congo and Uganda

On a Tuesday in May, the World Health Organization made a declaration that had been quietly feared for weeks: the Ebola outbreak spreading across the Democratic Republic of Congo and into Uganda was now officially a public health emergency of international concern. By that point, 131 people had died. More than 500 cases were suspected. But the real number, experts warned, was almost certainly much worse.

The outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo virus, one of several strains capable of triggering Ebola disease. It had taken root in Ituri, a remote northeastern province of the DRC, and had begun moving into neighboring North Kivu. The first known case appeared on April 24—a healthcare worker whose symptoms started in Bunia, the provincial capital. That person died in a medical center there. On May 5, the WHO received an alert about an unknown illness with a high death rate. By May 15, after a rapid-response team investigation, the outbreak was confirmed. The delay mattered enormously. Jeremy Konyndyk, who had led COVID response and disaster aid efforts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said multiple "generations of transmission" had likely passed undetected before confirmation—a problem he called "very, very grave."

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director-general, said he was "deeply concerned with the scale and speed" of the outbreak. The Bundibugyo virus carries an average mortality rate of 50 percent. It spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people, or through contact with contaminated materials or bodies. There are no approved treatments or vaccines specifically for this strain. American health officials said they were working to develop a monoclonal antibody therapy, but offered no timeline. The genetic fingerprint of the current outbreak resembled strains from 2007 and 2012, which meant diagnostic equipment already existed to detect it—a small advantage in a situation otherwise marked by disadvantage.

The real crisis, though, was not medical alone. It was geographical, political, and humanitarian. Ituri had been ravaged by years of conflict. Fighting had intensified since late 2025 and worsened significantly in the two months before the outbreak was confirmed. More than 100,000 people had been recently displaced. The violence made it nearly impossible for aid workers to reach the people who needed help most. In Ituri alone, 11,000 South Sudanese refugees needed preventive assistance. In the city of Goma, controlled by rebel forces, more than 2,000 Rwandan and Burundian refugees needed sanitary supplies. Philippe Guiton, the national director of World Vision in the DRC, said children were "the most vulnerable." They were already "heavily affected by conflict and insufficient humanitarian assistance due to lack of resources." David Munkley, World Vision's director for the eastern zone, added that Ituri was facing "an alarming situation of acute malnutrition, which further weakens people's immune systems, combined with extremely limited access to healthcare in remote areas."

Craig Spencer, a doctor who survived Ebola infection in 2014, told CNN that what worried him most was how much had been learned and how quickly. "There is no doubt that this is probably much worse than we think right now," he said. "I suspect the actual number of cases is much higher than what is being reported." The initial detection had been delayed because local tests in Bunia came back negative for the more common Zaire strain, so the Bundibugyo virus went unrecognized at first.

On Monday, the United States invoked a public health law to restrict entry from the affected region—the same day an American citizen tested positive for the virus in the DRC. That person was being transported to Germany for treatment at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. Uganda's authorities tried to reassure visitors that there had been no local transmission, despite two confirmed cases in the capital, Kampala. Both involved Congolese citizens who had entered from the DRC. The U.S. State Department advised Americans to avoid all travel to the DRC, South Sudan, and Uganda, and to reconsider travel to Rwanda. The Africa CDC criticized the American travel restrictions, saying broad bans "can disrupt lives and economies."

What remained unclear was the true scale of what was happening. Anne Ancia, the WHO's representative in the DRC, confirmed that the outbreak had spread to North Kivu but said there was still "significant uncertainty" about the real number of infections. The combination of conflict, displacement, malnutrition, and delayed detection meant that the outbreak unfolding in the remote corners of eastern Congo was almost certainly far larger than the official count suggested. The question now was whether the world could respond fast enough to contain it.