Overview
- The World Health Organization told an emergency meeting on Tuesday that the outbreak has passed 5,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,300 deaths and that the epidemic is moving faster than the response.
- Genetic sequencing shows transmission began in February, about three months before the mid‑May declaration, which left many chains of infection undetected and helped the virus spread widely.
- There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, though experimental vaccine and therapeutic trials have started and the first volunteer was vaccinated in the UK.
- Response work is being undermined by insecurity, attacks on ambulances and facilities, health‑worker strikes, mass displacement and community mistrust, with WHO recording multiple violent incidents since January.
- WHO and partners are shifting to a decentralized effort by recruiting motorbike riders for surveillance, deploying roughly 100 epidemiologists and 500+ community health workers, and adding about 400 treatment beds to reach hard‑to‑access communities.