GENEVA – In an official announcement posted to its website Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) has formally designated the ongoing Ebola outbreak driven by the Bundibugyo virus across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), stopping short of classifying the event as a full pandemic emergency.
The latest epidemiological data published by the WHO, updated through May 16, 2026, paints a preliminary but concerning picture of the outbreak’s spread. In the DRC’s northeastern Ituri Province, health authorities have recorded eight confirmed Ebola cases, 246 suspected cases, and 80 reported deaths among suspected patients. One additional confirmed case has been detected in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital, marking the virus’s reach into a major urban center far from the original outbreak zone. Neighboring Uganda has also confirmed two cases of Ebola traced back to importation from the DRC, both detected in the Ugandan capital Kampala. To date, researchers have found no clear epidemiological connection between the two Ugandan cases, adding to uncertainties around transmission dynamics.
Among the most alarming early developments is the death of at least four frontline healthcare workers who treated Ebola patients in affected regions. These fatalities have amplified experts’ concerns about ongoing nosocomial, or hospital-based, transmission of the virus, a risk that can quickly overwhelm under-resourced local health systems.
The WHO emphasized that large gaps remain in understanding the full scope of the outbreak. Significant uncertainty surrounds the actual total number of infections, the full geographic range of virus circulation, and the transmission links connecting confirmed and suspected cases. Compounding these challenges is the absence of any globally approved, targeted therapeutics or vaccines specifically designed to protect against or treat infection with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.
To coordinate a unified global response, the WHO announced it will convene an independent Emergency Committee in the near term to develop evidence-based guidance for response measures for affected nations and the international public health community.
WHO officials warn that early indicators suggest the outbreak is far larger than current detected and reported case counts indicate. Key red flags include a high positivity rate among initial patient samples, the confirmation of cases in two capital cities (Kinshasa and Kampala), and a steady upward trend in both suspected cases and deaths across Ituri Province. Multiple structural factors are amplifying the risk of widespread spread: persistent insecurity in affected regions that disrupts outbreak surveillance and response, an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has left millions of vulnerable people without access to adequate health care, high cross-border and internal population mobility, the location of current outbreak hotspots in urban and semi-urban areas, and an extensive network of unregulated informal health care facilities that lack infection control infrastructure.