The head of the World Health Organization has arrived in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, to support efforts to combat the outbreak of the rare strain of the Ebola virus, as health workers struggle with a lack of equipment, unscrupulous people and armed groups in the volatile region.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that authorities had reported 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths.
“Coming here is to show the public that you are not alone,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the airport on Thursday.
“Issuing orders from my comfortable office in Geneva is easy, but I ask my colleagues to cooperate with the community and I ask the communities to protect themselves,” he added.
The outbreak “can be stopped,” he said, but it is “very complicated.”
Challenges such as the high number of people displaced by conflicts in the region and food insecurity complicate efforts to stop the spread of the virus, Tedros said.
Containment has been very difficult because the disease may have spread for weeks before it became apparent in mid-May.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said three of its volunteers in Ituri province died after they were believed to have contracted Ebola while doing unrelated health work on March 27 – more than a month before the first suspected death reported by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak spreads faster than the response
Meanwhile, the outbreak continues to spread faster than the response, despite health facilities being more organized and the arrival of more equipment.
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Anaïs Legand, a researcher in the WHO’s emergency program, told reporters at a UN forum in Geneva on Friday that it was a “good development” that a Congolese man who contracted the Bundibugyo virus had recovered and was released on Wednesday. It is the only documented recovery of a confirmed Ebola patient during the current outbreak.
Legand said five other people with the virus may have recovered.
The average fatality rate for the Bundibugyo virus is 30 to 50 percent, he said.
Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in Congo, on Thursday, and more are expected to be sent in the next eight days. The United States announced $80 million in additional aid that day, bringing its commitment to more than $112 million.
An AP reporter in Bunia, the provincial capital, said the response has improved since new aid arrived earlier this week.
At Rwampara Hospital, where a treatment center has been established, the response seems more organized than in previous days, as more staff have been deployed, strict prevention measures and teams wearing protective gear are visible in all units – although patients continue to arrive around the clock.
Similar progress was noted at Bunia General Hospital, where new medical facilities, support staff and emergency funding were seen as stimulating activities.
Health workers with limited resources have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola for which there is no treatment or vaccine. In some places, doctors have resorted to wearing outdated medical masks while treating suspected patients.
There are no specific treatments for Bundibugyo.
“Right now we are looking at the use of many drugs and compounds that can help save many lives, because, as I said, this disease initially presents like any other infectious disease that we are used to: dizziness, headache, fever, vomiting and diarrhea,” said the Minister of Health in Congo, Samuel Roger Kamba, told reporters on Thursday night.
Insecurity, travel bans can make the answer difficult
The dangers facing health workers have been exacerbated by anger among citizens over strict medical regulations for dealing with victims’ bodies, which conflict with local burial laws. Residents have attacked health facilities at least three times.
In the northeastern part of Congo near the Ugandan border, Ituri province has been under attack by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group affiliated with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias. In early May, the ADF killed at least 40 people and burned several houses in Ituri.
The disease has also been reported in Congo, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, south of Ituri, where the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 controls several key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels reported two cases.
After Uganda closed its border with Congo, a WHO official said on Thursday it was discouraging countries from imposing travel restrictions. “There are ways to manage workers and manage cases without strict restrictions, with travel restrictions and we do not recommend that as WHO,” Tedros said.
The Trump administration last week announced a temporary ban on entry for people without US passports who have visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days. It said Wednesday it plans to send Americans exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the US.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
