分类： health

Beneath the bustle of Kinshasa’s sprawling Masina Market, a quiet, high-stakes trade continues nearly unabated: the sale of wild meat from the Congo Basin’s vast ancient forests. Unlike the openly displayed buckets of squirming edible caterpillars tended by market women, most exotic wild game — from giant swamp rodents to severed antelope carcasses — stays hidden, only brought out for customers who know to ask. For millions across Central and West Africa, wild meat, locally called *viande de brousse*, is far more than sustenance: it is a deeply ingrained cultural tradition, a primary source of affordable animal protein, and a livelihood for thousands of small-scale vendors. Even the ongoing deadly Ebola outbreak ravaging remote eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has done little to curb steady consumer demand for the forest-sourced product.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — As frontline medical teams grapple with cascading challenges ranging from critical equipment shortages to community distrust and active armed conflict, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus touched down in Congo’s capital Kinshasa late Thursday to personally observe the response to a rare strain of Ebola outbreak.

In remarks to reporters gathered at Kinshasa’s airport, Tedros emphasized that his in-person visit was intended to send a clear message to affected communities: they are not facing this public health emergency alone. “Issuing directives from a comfortable office in Geneva is simple, but I am asking my staff to work side-by-side with local communities, and asking communities to take steps to protect themselves,” he explained. “My presence here reflects that shared commitment.”

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus — a subtype with no currently approved vaccine or targeted treatment — has already spread across three northeastern Congolese provinces, centered on Ituri province. As of this week, WHO data records 1,077 suspected cases and 238 suspected deaths across the affected region.

Frontline response efforts have been severely undermined by a crippling lack of critical supplies. In multiple hard-hit areas, overstretched health workers have even been forced to rely on expired personal protective equipment, including medical masks, when interacting with suspected patients.

Community tensions have further complicated containment work. Stringent infection control protocols for handling Ebola victims’ bodies directly conflict with long-held local burial traditions, sparking anger among residents that has boiled over into at least three separate attacks on local health facilities. Tedros highlighted two other major barriers to stopping the outbreak’s spread: mass population displacement caused by decades of armed conflict in the region, and widespread acute food insecurity.

A day ahead of his arrival in Kinshasa, Tedros issued an urgent call for a ceasefire in the conflict-torn northeast, arguing that public health work cannot proceed amid ongoing violence. “We cannot build community trust or isolate infected patients while bombs are falling,” he said.

Ituri province, located in northeastern DRC near the Ugandan border, has been plagued by sustained violence from the Allied Democratic Force (ADF), a rebel faction linked to the Islamic State, alongside a coalition of ethnic militias. Just weeks ago, early May attacks by the ADF left at least 40 people dead and destroyed dozens of civilian homes in the province.

The outbreak has also been detected in North Kivu and South Kivu, provinces south of Ituri where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group holds control over major urban centers including Goma and Bukavu. Two cases of the virus have already been confirmed among rebel fighters in the region.

Goma’s main airport, a critical logistical hub that coordinates most humanitarian aid deliveries into northeastern DRC, has remained closed since M23 forces seized the city in January 2025. The ongoing conflict in eastern DRC has already spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes, forcing more than 7 million people from their homes across the region.

There was some positive development Thursday, however: a shipment of medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak. Hours earlier, the United States announced an additional $80 million in emergency assistance for the response, bringing Washington’s total commitment to the effort to more than $112 million.

During his Kinshasa press briefing, Tedros also pushed back against travel restrictions imposed by multiple countries in response to the outbreak, urging nations against implementing broad entry bans. “There are effective ways to manage risk and screen cases without imposing harsh, broad travel restrictions, and as an organization, we do not encourage that approach,” he stated.

The Trump administration recently drew criticism for its new restrictions: last week, it announced a temporary entry ban for non-US citizens and non-green card holders who have traveled to outbreak-affected nations including Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan within the previous 21 days. On Wednesday, the administration further announced that US citizens exposed to Ebola would be quarantined at a new facility in Kenya, rather than being repatriated to the United States for isolation. Congo’s neighboring countries, Uganda and Rwanda, have also recently closed their shared borders in response to the outbreak.

Reporting for this story was contributed by Banchereau from Dakar, Senegal.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A senior anonymous administration official confirmed Wednesday that the Trump administration has advanced a new plan to route U.S. citizens exposed to the Ebola virus through a purpose-built regional facility in Kenya, rather than evacuating them directly back to the United States for care.

Developed jointly by the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services, the new quarantine and treatment center is intended specifically to serve Ebola patients requiring urgent evacuation out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak has outpaced local containment efforts. According to the official, the regional model cuts out the need for lengthy, hours-long medical evacuation flights across continents to U.S. medical facilities, streamlining access to care for people impacted by the outbreak.

Details of the plan remain incomplete as of Wednesday: the administration has not disclosed the exact location of the facility within Kenya, nor has it confirmed whether Kenyan national authorities have formally approved the proposal. The official noted that the center will be equipped to manage all stages of Ebola infection, a pathogen infamous for its high fatality rate even among rare, severe viral illnesses. However, the plan also includes provisions to transfer patients to alternative facilities with more specialized capabilities if advanced care is required, the official added.

The Ebola outbreak at the center of this planning effort has already posed severe challenges to Congolese and global health authorities. After the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola was identified in the region, public health teams revealed that confirmation of the pathogen was delayed for weeks, as initial testing only targeted the more common Ebola variant. The World Health Organization has already warned that case growth is outpacing containment efforts, a assessment backed by the latest official data from the DRC.

As of Tuesday, Congolese health ministry data puts the total number of suspected Ebola cases in eastern DRC at nearly 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths attributed to the outbreak. So far, 101 cases have received formal laboratory confirmation, and contact tracers are monitoring more than 3,000 people who may have been exposed to infected individuals. Beyond the pathogen itself, response teams face layered structural barriers: active conflict from armed groups in eastern DRC, a large population of internally displaced people who lack regular access to healthcare, and crumbling basic infrastructure all complicate large-scale outbreak control.

KAMPALA, UGANDA – In an unprecedented move that contradicts global public health recommendations, Ugandan health officials announced an immediate full closure of the country’s long border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday, as cases of a rare, untreatable strain of Ebola skyrocket in Congo and potential exposure clusters emerge within Uganda itself.

The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola at the center of this outbreak has no clinically approved vaccines or antiviral treatments available, a reality that has amplified alarm across East Africa even as both Uganda and Congo have years of prior experience managing past Ebola outbreaks. The closure order was issued by Uganda’s national Ebola response task force following a steady rise in the number of Ugandan healthcare workers exposed to the virus by infected Congolese patients who crossed the border before the outbreak was officially declared on May 15.

Dr. Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of Uganda’s Ministry of Health, confirmed to reporters that only limited cross-border movement will be permitted for emergency purposes, including outbreak response deployments, essential cargo shipments, and security operations. Any individual allowed entry from Congo under these exceptions will be required to complete a 21-day mandatory isolation period, the full incubation window for the Ebola virus.

As of this week, Congolese health authorities report 101 confirmed cases of Ebola, with more than 3,000 at-risk contacts currently under monitoring. The total number of suspected cases across eastern Congo has climbed to nearly 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths linked to the current outbreak. Ebola, a severe hemorrhagic fever, spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected or deceased patients, with healthcare workers and family members caring for patients facing the highest risk of transmission. Public health experts universally identify proactive contact tracing and prompt isolation of exposed individuals as the most critical steps to halting community spread.

Last month, the World Health Organization categorized the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the global body’s highest alert level. Even while acknowledging that neighboring nations like Uganda face extremely high risk of imported cases, the WHO has explicitly advised against full border closures. The agency warns that official closures force cross-border movement to shift to unregulated informal footpaths and crossings, which lack any health screening or monitoring – a dynamic that ultimately increases the risk of unobserved disease spread.

Uganda and Congo share a hundreds-mile-long border crisscrossed by dozens of informal foot trails that are impossible to fully seal. Cross-border daily travel for family visits and small-scale trade is a longstanding norm for communities on both sides of the frontier.

Congo’s public health teams have struggled to get the outbreak under control since the Bundibugyo strain was confirmed months ago. Initial diagnostic delays slowed the response: early samples were tested for more common Ebola strains, pushing back confirmation of the outbreak by weeks. The WHO has acknowledged that the spread of the virus is currently outpacing response efforts.

Multiple structural and security challenges have complicated containment work in eastern Congo. The region is plagued by ongoing violence from active armed groups, hosts a large population of displaced people fleeing conflict, and lacks basic transportation and health infrastructure. This week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to social media to call for an immediate ceasefire in the region, emphasizing that attacks on health facilities make contact tracing and case management nearly impossible.

Local response teams have also reported being chronically underresourced: frontline workers lack adequate personal protective equipment like face shields and full-body hazmat suits, testing remains limited, and even basic supplies like body bags for safe burials of Ebola victims are in short supply. Many residents in the conflict-affected region have deep-seated distrust of outside authorities, and response volunteers and health clinics have faced repeated attacks, with locals throwing stones and harassing teams working to educate communities about Ebola risks.

In a related development, the U.S. Trump administration announced Wednesday that it would route any American citizens exposed to Ebola for treatment at a newly constructed isolation facility in Kenya, rather than repatriating them to the United States for care. That announcement came the same week Canada introduced its own entry measures, requiring mandatory self-isolation for all travelers arriving from Congo, Sudan, and Uganda over Ebola concerns.

To date, Uganda has recorded seven confirmed Ebola cases, with the first case – a 59-year-old Congolese man who crossed into Uganda – dying in the capital Kampala on May 14. While confirmed case counts have not yet spiked exponentially in Uganda, the number of Ugandan healthcare workers exposed to the virus through border crossing patients continues to climb. Atwine noted that each exposed worker has their own household contacts, driving a steady expansion of the at-risk population.

The health official also publicly criticized crowds of Ugandan soccer fans who gathered in large groups to celebrate Arsenal’s English Premier League title win, a reminder that pandemic fatigue and low public vigilance remain additional obstacles to containment. Atwine urged all Ugandans to remain alert, adopt basic preventive measures including avoiding handshakes, and regularly using hand sanitizer.

This is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in Congo. Global health experts warn that aid cuts to regional response programs implemented by the U.S. and other wealthy donor nations last year have severely undermined preparedness in eastern Congo, a region that has long been classified as high-risk for epidemic spread. Aid organizations currently on the ground fighting the outbreak confirm they are still lacking critical equipment to protect workers and safely manage cases.

The World Health Organization’s director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has issued a stark warning that persistent armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is severely undermining global and local efforts to curb an accelerating Ebola outbreak that has already claimed hundreds of suspected lives. With the epicenter of the current outbreak located in DR Congo’s violence-wracked Ituri Province, Tedros described the crisis as a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict”, noting that the virus is spreading faster than response teams can contain it.

In a public post on the social platform X, Tedros emphasized that public health work cannot progress under active combat: “We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling.” He confirmed that he will travel to DR Congo on Wednesday to lead efforts to scale up response capacity and slow the outbreak’s spread. As of the latest updates, 220 suspected Ebola-related deaths have been recorded since the outbreak was officially declared, with roughly 1,000 people currently exhibiting symptoms consistent with the viral disease. Only 17 of those deaths have been definitively confirmed via laboratory testing, leaving response teams working with incomplete data on the outbreak’s true scope.

The challenges facing medical teams extend far beyond active fighting. Ituri has been under direct military rule since 2021, when the central government replaced civilian leadership with a military commander in a bid to disarm dozens of active armed groups operating in the region. Chronic poor road infrastructure makes travel across affected areas slow and dangerous, while mass population displacement from conflict has fractured the already fragile local public health system — a strain worsened by recent cuts to international aid funding. Tedros stressed that halting Ebola transmission in the region is entirely dependent on unimpeded, sustained humanitarian access to affected communities. Ongoing clashes have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, pushing many exposed to the virus into overcrowded displacement camps that create ideal conditions for further spread, while cutting off critical routes that medical teams rely on to reach patients. “Frontline workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible,” he added. He has called on all armed parties and the Congolese government to agree to an immediate ceasefire to grant medical teams safe, unobstructed access to all affected areas.

Adding another layer of complexity to the response, this outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no widely approved vaccines or targeted therapies currently exist. Response teams are currently working against the clock to trace more than 3,600 people who have been identified as close contacts of confirmed or suspected cases, a critical step to stop chains of transmission. While 2,000 testing kits have already been distributed to affected areas, a further 4,000 are scheduled for deployment in the coming days, and experimental treatments including an antibody developed in the United States are expected to be deployed soon.

The head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in DR Congo, Ewald Stals, told the BBC that the organization and other aid groups are working to move critical supplies and personnel into the outbreak’s epicenter, but persistent insecurity and inadequate transport links in Ituri have slowed progress dramatically. “Slowly but surely, there is, of course, some activity going on, but overall, we’re still far behind having a control on the situation,” Stals said. “So we still do not have a full picture of what is happening, and that is mainly due to insufficient testing. So we need more testing, we need more diagnosis to make sure that we get a full picture of what is going on — so we do not have that for the moment. And as long as that is the case, we can say that we’re running behind the virus, that the virus is still ahead of us, and that we really have to catch up.” MSF estimates it will take several weeks to put the full infrastructure needed to contain the outbreak in place.

A small number of cases have already been detected in neighboring Uganda, prompting growing global concern about cross-border spread. Multiple countries have already implemented strict travel restrictions in response to the outbreak: Last week, the United States banned entry for non-citizens who have recently traveled to DR Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan. Canada followed this week with a temporary 90-day entry ban on residents from the three affected countries, while the Bahamas has implemented mandatory quarantine or isolation for foreign nationals arriving from the region.

International health bodies have begun moving to boost their on-the-ground response capacity. On Wednesday morning, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced it would increase its in-country presence, deploying additional outbreak experts via the EU Health Task Force to support local and international response efforts. The WHO and partnering organizations have stressed that without an immediate end to hostilities in Ituri, the outbreak will continue to outpace response efforts and could spread beyond DR Congo’s borders.

In the heart of eastern Congo’s Ebola outbreak zone, the grim reality of public health failure is on full display at the ISP displaced persons camp in Bunia, where 10,000 people forced from their homes by years of regional conflict are trapped with almost no tools to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

Against a backdrop of persistent armed violence that has shattered local healthcare infrastructure, this overcrowded settlement has just one handwashing station and a single infrared thermometer to guard against a raging epidemic declared a global public health emergency. Camp organizers have issued guidance to wash hands before meals, but the harsh reality means only a small fraction of residents can access soap. Those without are instructed to use sand or oatmeal as a poor substitute.

“My fear is that we are here with nothing to protect ourselves. We have no protection, no water or soap, and we live near garbage,” Francine Leve Janguzi, a long-term camp resident, told the Associated Press beside an empty water tap amid a sea of tarpaulin temporary shelters. Janguzi, who has lived in the camp for eight and a half years after fleeing militia attacks in Djugu territory, added: “Look at the state of where we’re sleeping. We don’t have any help whatsoever. We don’t have soap or water, yet we’re told to wash our hands regularly and be clean.”

Nearly one million people have been displaced by ongoing conflict across Ituri province, the epicenter of the current outbreak, according to United Nations figures. While international aid organizations and public health teams have rushed emergency supplies to the region to contain the virus, frontline responders warn that overcrowded displacement camps like ISP are the most vulnerable points for catastrophic spread.

“Eastern DRC’s years of conflict and displacement have left health systems on their knees, and that makes containing this outbreak all the harder,” explained Heather Kerr, country director for the International Rescue Committee in Congo. Gabriela Arenas, regional coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, echoed that assessment, noting the outbreak is “unfolding in communities already facing insecurity, displacement and fragile healthcare systems.”

Most ISP camp residents were displaced by violence from the CODECO armed group, one of dozens of active militant factions operating in eastern Congo. The region has been mired in instability for decades: Rwandan-backed M23 rebels control large swathes of territory, while the Ugandan Islamist Allied Democratic Forces, linked to the Islamic State group, carries out frequent deadly attacks on civilian targets across Ituri. Even before the Ebola outbreak, humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders documented worsening insecurity that had driven medical staff to flee, leaving health facilities overwhelmed and in many areas facing “catastrophic conditions.”

Compounding the risk is the nature of the specific virus circulating: this is the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has no approved vaccine or targeted treatment and circulated undetected for weeks before being identified. Standard diagnostic tests also struggle to detect the strain, leading experts to warn that official case counts are a significant underrepresentation of the true scope of the outbreak.

As of Tuesday, official records counted more than 1,000 suspected cases and at least 220 deaths, including seven confirmed cases that have already spread across the border to Uganda. The World Health Organization and on-the-air aid groups confirm the actual number of infections is far higher. Ebola is a highly contagious pathogen spread through contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, vomit and semen, causing a severe, often fatal illness marked by fever, muscle pain, weakness, gastrointestinal distress and abnormal bleeding.

For camp residents and community leaders, the lack of basic resources and treatment options has created a climate of pervasive fear. “I’ve learned that there’s no cure, which is why it scares me. … Our government should also do everything possible to find a solution to this disease,” said Gérard Maki, a community leader at the ISP camp.

This reporting was contributed by Pronczuk from Dakar, Senegal, and AP writer Jean-Yves Kamale from Kinshasa, Congo. The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation, and maintains full editorial control over all content.