Congo Ebola outbreak ‘global emergency’ as infections pass 5,000: WHO

Officials warn they are continuing to identify new chains of transmission, which need to be broken to stop the spread.

WorldAugust 18, 2026News Info Wire3 min read

Congo Ebola outbreak ‘global emergency’ as infections pass 5,000: WHO

Key points

The outbreak was declared on May 17, but genetic sequencing of samples shows that it began spreading three months earlier…
“Hand-washing stations and disinfectant have been made available, but the new objective is to recruit them as surveillance and response…
The first volunteer to receive an experimental vaccine for this strain of Ebola received his jab in the UK last…
The epidemic will continue until every chain was found and broken, he cautioned.

By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters

Published On 18 Aug 202618 Aug 2026

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned as it unveiled that the number of cases in the country has passed 5,000.

Following an emergency gathering on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on the international community to assist in efforts to contain the outbreak. It has killed more than 2,320 people.

“We must be frank: the epidemic is far from being under control,” Tedros informed the emergency meeting. “It had a big head start, and we are still playing catch-up.”

The outbreak is the seventeenth in the DRC and is now the deadliest, exceeding the number of people killed during the outbreak from 2018 to 2020.

The emergency has caused more concern than usual for a number of reasons, including the fact that there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment for this strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo.

Response efforts have been further complicated by conflict in the mineral-rich DRC, misinformation, distrust of health workers and cultural traditions, among other factors.

Tedros warned on Tuesday that the outbreak was spreading at an “unprecedented speed,” and that the locations of numerous of the deaths show that there are chains of transmission yet to be identified.

As the organisation makes a major push to rise community engagement in tackling the disease, WHO medic Thierno Balde said to journalists that motorbike riders are now a core focus of response efforts.

The riders are among those worst affected by the illness because of their transport duties, including delivering patients and dead bodies.

“Hand-washing stations and disinfectant have been made available, but the new objective is to recruit them as surveillance and response officers,” Dr Balde added.

The outbreak was declared on May 17, but genetic sequencing of samples shows that it began spreading three months earlier, in February.

The first volunteer to receive an experimental vaccine for this strain of Ebola received his jab in the UK last month. Hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine, produced by scientists at Oxford University, have already been manufactured in India and are ready for immediate use if the trials are successful.