Ebola deaths in eastern Congo rise to 131, WHO voices deep concern
A man is carried from an ambulance as he arrives at Bunia General Referral Hospital following confirmation of an Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 16, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS
Twenty-six more suspected Ebola deaths were recorded in 24 hours in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), authorities said on Tuesday, and the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed deep concern about the outbreak's spread.
The new deaths brought to 131 the fatalities associated with the outbreak in eastern DRC. There have been 516 suspected cases and 33 confirmed cases in DRC, according to a daily bulletin published by health authorities, and two confirmed cases in neighbouring Uganda.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday, the first time a WHO chief has done so before convening an emergency committee.
The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on #Ebola caused by Bundibugyo virus in #DRC and #Uganda will meet today, 19 May 2026 from 17h30 CEST (GMT+2) https://t.co/JV36PSec4Q@DrTedros determined the event constitutes a public health emergency of international… pic.twitter.com/27Nsg1eLk5
The outbreak has alarmed experts because it was able to spread for weeks undetected across a densely populated area ravaged by widespread armed violence. A 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern DRC was the second deadliest on record, killing nearly 2,300 people.
Butembo, a city of hundreds of thousands of people, recorded its first two confirmed cases on Monday, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), told Reuters.
Ugandan authorities have started restricting movement across the Ishasha-Kyeshero border crossing, Ambrose Amanyire Mwesigye, a local government official, told Reuters, though he said the border was not formally closed.
Further south, Congolese people trying to cross into Rwanda from the cities of Goma and Bukavu were being stopped at the border, Reuters reporters said. Rwandan officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The WHO had on Saturday urged countries not to close their borders, saying this could lead to informal border crossings that are not monitored.
A map of Ituri Province and Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Americans to be evacuated to Germany
Ebola, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals, has an average fatality rate of around 50%, according to the WHO.
"I'm deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic," Tedros told members of the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Tuesday.
Read More: The Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus: What do we know?
WHO's representative in DRC, Anne Ancia, said identifying cases was slowed by limited diagnostic capacity for the Bundibugyo strain, with just six tests possible per hour.
Experts say the delays in detecting the outbreak show gaps in preparedness following cutbacks by the US and other major donors to global health funding.
“We seemed to have wasted a pandemic because everybody has gone back to doing what they’re doing," Sierra Leone's health minister, Austin Demby, said in Geneva.
One American has tested positive for Ebola, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday.
The individual, identified as Dr Peter Stafford by his Christian mission organisation, and six other Americans who were exposed to the virus were being moved to Germany for care and monitoring, the CDC said.
The US suspended entry of travellers who had been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan during the past 21 days, with certain exceptions, for 30 days and urged Americans not to travel to those countries for any reason.
In a statement on Tuesday, Africa CDC, the continent's top health agency, said such restrictions can hurt economies, discourage transparency and complicate humanitarian operations.
Read More: Health workers race to contain Congo's fast-spreading Ebola outbreak
Experts try to develop treatments and vaccines
Unlike the more common Zaire strain, there are no approved virus-specific therapeutics or vaccines for the Bundibugyo strain.
The US, which said it had mobilised an initial $13 million to respond to the outbreak, is working to develop a monoclonal antibody therapy as a potential treatment, the CDC said.
A panel of experts led by the WHO was meeting on Tuesday to discuss vaccine options that could help tackle the outbreak. The WHO's Ancia said Merck & Co's Ervebo was one candidate, but that it would take two months to be available.
President Donald Trump formally withdrew the US from the WHO in January after criticising its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ancia said the WHO had been working "very well" with the US government on the Ebola outbreak but reductions in health funding had had a "tremendous impact" on the organisation's ability to counter the disease.