Congo Ebola Outbreak Spreading Faster Than Response Efforts: WHO Chief

Kinshasa: The head of the World Health Organization has warned that Congo's rapidly escalating Ebola outbreak is advancing faster than the world's ability to contain it, a message delivered during a visit to the country where a wage dispute has driven some health workers off the job.

Speaking Wednesday after meeting with officials in Kinshasa on his second visit since the outbreak's mid-May declaration, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said case numbers are doubling in certain hotspot regions nearly three months into the crisis. In a post on X, he called for an immediate and dramatic scaling-up of response efforts across every front, involving all partners.

According to the latest figures from Congo's Ministry of Health, the outbreak has produced 3,874 confirmed infections and 1,751 deaths as of Monday — numbers that make it the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, trailing only the 2014-2016 West African epidemic that claimed over 11,000 lives across more than 28,000 cases.

Healthcare access hit hard in Ituri

Ituri province, where the outbreak originated, has been especially affected as frontline medical workers there strike, according to local families, further straining a healthcare system already stretched thin by ongoing rebel conflict in the region bordering South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. Though some workers report receiving overdue payments within the last week, they continue pushing for better wages.

US pledges additional aid

The United States announced Wednesday it would contribute another $242 million toward emergency Ebola response, preparedness measures and broader humanitarian relief in the region, bringing its total direct contribution to over $512 million, the State Department said.

No vaccine or treatment has been approved for the Bundibugyo virus strain behind this outbreak, which local officials suspect was spreading undetected in a remote area before its official declaration in May. Doctors Without Borders described the outbreak Wednesday as continuing to grow at an alarming pace, cautioning that response efforts, despite expanding, still aren't reaching communities quickly enough to halt transmission.

Contact tracing failures cited

Africa CDC director Dr Jean Kaseya, visiting Bunia on Tuesday, said contact tracing systems are breaking down, with an estimated 60% to 70% of fresh cases originating from people who weren't being monitored after exposure. Health officials link this delayed detection to the outbreak's alarming 45% fatality rate; of 77 cases logged in one recent 24-hour period, 44 proved fatal. The health ministry reports 717 patients currently isolated and 749 who have recovered.

After meeting Tedros on Wednesday, Kaseya said Africa CDC's strategy now centers on catching cases earlier, improving contact tracing, ensuring faster access to quality treatment, and building deeper ties with affected communities.

Tedros similarly urged that the response reach every affected locality, that coordination under government leadership be reinforced, and that health workers be safeguarded — adding that community trust, leadership and cooperation remain essential to ending the outbreak.