Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is in Kinshasa. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the Ebola epidemic is intensifying, a representative of the organization indicated on Wednesday. He is expected to meet with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi during his visit.
The WHO Director-General’s visit comes after the WHO warned on Saturday that the epidemic was “intensifying at an exceptional rate” and called for a scaling up of the health response. The latest official figures report a total of 3,874 confirmed cases, including 1,751 deaths, reported by DRC authorities since the start of the outbreak.
“The epidemic unfortunately continues to spread at a pace that exceeds response capacities,” said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic during a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. He called for “more financial support” and resources to strengthen “treatment capacities, field investigation teams, and teams in charge of safe burials.”
The WHO chief had previously visited Ituri (northeast) in late May, the epicenter of the current outbreak, where nearly 90% of cases have been reported. On May 15, the DRC declared, with a delay of several weeks, its 17th Ebola epidemic affecting its vast territory of over 100 million inhabitants. The deadliest epidemic the country has known resulted in nearly 2,300 deaths out of 3,500 recorded cases between 2018 and 2020.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo variant, for which there is currently no vaccine or treatment. It is hitting regions where state presence is fragile and health infrastructure is largely lacking. Over the past two months, the ongoing epidemic has spread to five provinces in the DRC (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé, and Tshopo).
Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. On Tuesday, Canada authorized the American pharmaceutical giant Moderna to launch clinical trials for a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. The vaccine presented by the WHO as “the most promising,” the “rVSV Bundibugyo,” will also be developed by Singapore-based Hilleman Laboratories.
Captured & Published at: 2026-08-05 19:53:42 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
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