The World Health Organization (WHO) triggered its second-highest level of international alert on Sunday in response to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The outbreak is caused by a highly lethal variant for which there is no vaccine.
According to a statement posted on the social media platform X by the WHO, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus concluded that the virus “constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), but does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency.” PHEIC has been the second-highest alert level of the WHO since 2024, following “emergency due to a pandemic.”
Despite recent vaccines and treatments, Ebola, which causes a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever, remains formidable, effective only against the Zaïre strain that caused the largest recorded epidemics.
Variant Bundibugyo
The province of Ituri in northeastern DRC is affected by the Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, against which there is no vaccine. As of May 16, the WHO confirmed eight cases in the laboratory and reported 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths suspected in the province, as well as another confirmed case in Kinshasa and one death in Kampala, Uganda, among travelers recently returned from Ituri.
The African Union health agency, Africa CDC, recorded 88 deaths likely due to the virus out of 336 suspected cases, according to the latest figures released on Saturday. The epicenter of the outbreak being in a remote and inaccessible area, few samples have been tested in the laboratory, and the assessments are mainly based on suspected cases.
Given the intense population movements related to mining activity in the gold-rich border region of Ituri with Uganda and South Sudan, access to certain areas, plagued by armed violence, is challenging for security reasons.
“We have been witnessing people dying for two weeks,” said Isaac Nyakulinda, a representative of the civil society in the city of Rwampara (Ituri), contacted by AFP by phone. “There is no place to isolate the sick. They die at home, and their bodies are handled by family members,” he continued, expressing fears of the worst.
15,000 deaths in 50 years
The virus has claimed over 15,000 lives in Africa over the past 50 years. During previous epidemic outbreaks, the mortality rate varied between 25% and 90%, according to the WHO.
“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine and no specific treatment,” emphasized Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba on Saturday, adding that “with this strain, the mortality rate is very high. It can go up to 50%.”
The Bundibugyo variant has only caused two outbreaks worldwide to date, in Uganda in 2007 (42 deaths out of 131 confirmed cases) and in the DRC in 2012 (13 deaths out of 38 confirmed cases).
“We do not have a vaccine, which means we mainly rely on public health measures,” such as observing barrier gestures and limiting movements, summarized Jean Kaseya, head of Africa CDC, on Saturday.
Transmission through fluids
According to health authorities, the first suspected case is a nurse who presented on April 24 at a medical facility in Bunia, the capital of Ituri, with Ebola infection symptoms.
The DRC experienced an Ebola epidemic between August and December 2025, resulting in at least 34 deaths. The deadliest epidemic claimed over 2,300 lives out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020.
In total, this is the 17th epidemic in the DRC since the disease was identified in 1976 in Zaïre, the country’s former name. Other countries on the continent have been affected by the virus in recent years, including Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Human transmission of the virus occurs through bodily fluids or exposure to the blood of an infected person, alive or deceased. Infected individuals become contagious only after symptoms appear, with an incubation period of up to 21 days.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
