The World Health Organization on Sunday declared the Ebola disease outbreak gripping eastern Congo and spreading into Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, a move intended to marshal international attention and resources for a fast-moving crisis driven by a rare, untreatable strain of the virus.
Health authorities had confirmed the outbreak on Friday in Congo’s Ituri province, and by Saturday the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 88 deaths. All of the cases are in Congo except for two recorded in neighboring Uganda, according to Africa CDC data.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a variant of the Ebola disease that has only been documented twice before—in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that killed 37 of 149 identified cases, and in Congo’s Isiro region in 2012, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were recorded. Unlike the more common Ebola Zaire strain, which has dominated most of Congo’s 17 previous outbreaks, the Bundibugyo virus has no licensed vaccines or antiviral treatments.
“Treatments for viral infections like Ebola are often directed at symptoms,” said Dr. Gabriel Nsakala, a professor of public health who has worked on past Ebola responses in Congo. He cautioned that Congo’s extensive outbreak experience could be tested by the unusual strain.
The first cases were detected in the Mongwalu health zone, a busy mining area, and patients subsequently sought care in Rwampara and Bunia health zones, the latter the capital of Ituri province. Bunia’s position near the border with Uganda and the broader region’s proximity to South Sudan raise fears of further cross-border spread. Africa CDC said intense population movement and attacks by armed groups that have killed dozens and displaced thousands in parts of Ituri over the past year add to the challenge.
Gaps in contact tracing are already evident as local authorities race to find those who may have been exposed. On Saturday, Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said multidisciplinary teams had been deployed at official and unofficial border crossings, high-risk contacts were being isolated, and surveillance was being enhanced.
Logistical hurdles are acute. Congo is Africa’s second-largest country by land area, with poor road networks, and Ituri lies more than 1,000 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa. During a separate Ebola outbreak last year, it took the WHO a week to deliver vaccines.
Funding remains a pressing concern. WHO has released $500,000 and Africa CDC said it has mobilized $2 million, but Kaseya’s agency described the sum as a small fraction of urgently needed funds. U.S. support, historically a backbone of Ebola response in Africa, is uncertain after the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid. The U.S. Agency for International Development provided up to $11.5 million for Ebola responses across Africa in 2021, but health officials raised fears about the impact of those reductions during last year’s outbreak.
The WHO advised against closing international borders, saying the situation does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency like COVID-19. Its emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. Yet the global response to previous such declarations has been uneven: when the WHO declared mpox a global emergency in 2024, experts noted it did little to speed the delivery of diagnostic tests, medicines, and vaccines to affected nations.
Ebola spreads from wild animals to people and then through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen, and with contaminated surfaces or materials. The disease causes fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and in severe cases internal and external bleeding. It is rare but often fatal.