GENEVA, Switzerland – In a stark update delivered to reporters on Friday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced a troubling escalation of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raising the national risk assessment from high to the most severe tier of “very high” amid evidence of accelerating transmission.
Tedros clarified that while the domestic risk has worsened, the threat of regional spillover still holds at a high level, and the global risk of widespread Ebola spread remains categorized as low. Official counts place the number of confirmed cases at 82, with seven confirmed fatalities recorded so far, but the WHO leader emphasized that the true scale of the epidemic far outpaces these confirmed numbers. Currently, more than 750 additional cases are classified as suspected, with 177 suspected deaths linked to the outbreak across affected areas of the country.
Neighboring Uganda has so far avoided widespread community transmission, with the situation there remaining classified as stable. Two confirmed Ebola cases have been recorded in the country, both tied to travel from the DRC, and one of those patients has died.
The rapidly deteriorating situation has prompted immediate action from the global humanitarian community. Earlier on Friday, the United Nations confirmed it had disbursed $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund, a reserve pool of emergency funding designated to speed up outbreak response efforts across the DRC and the broader Great Lakes region. The United States also announced a pledge of $23 million in new funding to support response operations in both the DRC and Uganda, alongside a plan to finance the construction of up to 50 new Ebola treatment clinics across affected zones in both countries.
Notably, Ugandan health authorities have publicly stated that they have no knowledge of planned U.S.-funded treatment centers being established within their borders, creating a small point of discrepancy in the announcement of international support.