Overview
- WHO warned Wednesday that the outbreak is moving faster than responders can contain and is on track to eclipse the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic if access does not improve.
- Government and WHO figures show more than 4,500 confirmed cases and about 2,100 deaths, with fatalities doubling in roughly three weeks and the virus now recorded in a sixth province after a death in Bas-Uele.
- The epidemic began months before detection, with genetic sequencing indicating transmission started in February and the official declaration issued on May 15, which left many chains of infection unidentified.
- Control efforts are severely constrained by active conflict, attacks on health facilities, unpaid health-worker strikes and widespread community mistrust that health officials say has led to 60–70% of deaths occurring outside treatment centres.
- Clinical trials and first‑in‑human vaccine studies for Bundibugyo have begun, but results and licensed countermeasures are months away, raising the risk of regional spread to neighbouring countries if response capacity is not rapidly scaled up.