The pinnacle of the World Health Organization said Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is “spreading rapidly” and poses a “very high” risk on the national level.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was revising its assessment to “very high” throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which had previously been deemed high.
The danger stays high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters in Geneva.
Ghebreyesus, who referred to the Ebola outbreak as “deeply worrisome,” said 82 cases have now been confirmed in Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, “but we all know the epidemic in DRC is way larger.”
He also noted that there at the moment are almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, rising from Wednesday’s update of 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths.
“The situation in Uganda is stable, with two cases confirmed in individuals who travelled from DRC, with one death,” he added. “The measures taken in Uganda, including intense contact tracing and cancelling the Martyrs’ Day commemoration, appear to have been effective in stopping the further spread of the virus.”
Ghebreyesus said the American national who was working in DRC has also been confirmed positive and transferred to Germany for care.
“We’re also aware of reports today about one other American national who’s a high-risk contact who has been transferred to the Czech Republic,” he added.
The governments of DRC and Uganda are leading the response to the Ebola outbreak, with support from the WHO and partners.
“Along with our national staff in DRC, thus far we’ve deployed 22 international staff to the sector, including a few of our most experienced people,” he told reporters. “And we’ve released US$3.9 million from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies.”
The WHO head said the organization can also be in contact with UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who allocated $60 million to the response.
“On the bottom, we’re supporting national authorities with every pillar of the response, including contact tracing, establishing treatment centres, risk communication and community engagement and more,” he said.
The WHO can also be establishing a continental incident management support team and in the approaching days, it would publish a multi-agency strategic preparedness and response plan, aligned with the national plans of DRC, Uganda and other partners.
No approved vaccines or therapeutics
Unlike many previous Ebola outbreaks, which were attributable to the Zaire virus, this outbreak is attributable to the Bundibugyo virus, for which there aren’t any approved vaccines or therapeutics, Ghebreyesus said.
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The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-08 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.
“Yesterday, WHO convened the leaders of several partner organizations under the interim Medical Countermeasures Network, to review the pipeline of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics,” Ghebreyesus added.
The WHO R&D Blueprint has convened its technical advisory group on therapeutics and really helpful prioritizing two monoclonal antibodies to advance in clinical trials.
The advisory group really helpful the evaluation of the antiviral obeldesivir in a clinical trial as post-exposure prophylaxis for people who find themselves high-risk contacts, in keeping with Ghebreyesus.
The clinical trial is now being developed jointly with Africa CDC and the Collaborative Open Research Consortium on filoviruses.
The WHO can also be discussing with partners candidate vaccines in the event and manufacturing pipeline.
Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s chief scientist, said the organization is repurposing drugs previously used for various strains of Ebola viruses.
“We make a listing of all of the things which might be potentially useful or within the pipeline after which the committee looks at prioritizing them using numerous criteria,” she said. “The primary criteria is their safety. Then also we take a look at criteria for implementation. We will not be yet at this phase of criteria for implementation since the committee only checked out the drugs which might be available.”
Briand said the subsequent steps require discussing with health authorities and other partners to see how they’ll implement them.
She called the antiviral obeldesivir a “promising treatment” but it would must be implemented under a “very, very strict protocol.”
Vasee Moorthy, the WHO’s senior science and strategy advisor, said the WHO already has “something prioritized within the prevention of cases and that’s the oral obeldesivir that has already been mentioned.”
Earlier this week, Moorthy said one vaccine candidate was six to nine months away from being available for clinical trials.
One other is being developed by the University of Oxford and India’s Serum Institute and was having doses “manufactured as we speak,” he added.
But Moorthy said there was no data from animal testing to support the vaccine.
“It is feasible that doses may very well be available for clinical trial in two to 3 months but there may be numerous uncertainty about whether that may be a promising candidate,” he said.
“It’ll rely upon the animal data on whether that’s considered a promising candidate research vaccine for Bundibugyo, in order that’s what I might say in regards to the pipeline now.”
Residents burn Ebola treatment centre in Congo
The WHO head spoke in regards to the Ebola treatment centre in a town at the guts of the outbreak in eastern Congo that was set on fire Thursday.
The arson attack in Rwampara took place after people were stopped from retrieving the body of a neighborhood man, in keeping with a senior police officer.
The bodies of those that die from Ebola could be highly contagious and result in further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals. The damaging work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities.
Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of the general public security department in Ituri Province, said the youths accused of setting the hearth had not understood the protocols for burying a suspected Ebola victim.
Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment centre in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026.
AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne
“His family, friends, and other young people desired to take his body home for a funeral though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear,” Mukendi told The Associated Press. “All bodies should be buried in keeping with the regulations.”
On Friday, Ghebreyesus said there may be “significant distrust of outdoor authorities among the many local population.”
“As you recognize, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu wherein the outbreak is going on are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months, causing greater than 100,000 people to be newly displaced,” Ghebreyesus said. “Across each provinces, around 4 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance, two million are displaced, and 10 million face acute hunger.”
“Just yesterday, there was a security incident at a hospital in Ituri, where tents and medical supplies were set on fire,” he continued. “Constructing trust within the affected communities is critical to a successful response, and is one in all our highest priorities.”
Ghebreyesus said the WHO is committed to making sure that essential health services for the affected communities are “maintained and strengthened, based on their needs.”
— with files from The Associated Press