WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda

ABUJA, Nigeria , May 18 : The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths. 

WHO said the outbreak doesn’t meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised against the closure of international borders.

WHO said on X that a laboratory-confirmed case has also been reported in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the outbreak’s epicenter in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting a possible wider spread. It said the patient had visited Ituri and that other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of Congo’s most populous and borders Ituri.

On Sunday, the rebel government of Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, said in a statement that the first confirmed case of Ebola was detected in the city. The infected person traveled from Ituri province and was currently under isolation, the statement said. Goma was the site of a rapid rebel offensive in early 2025, and the conflict between the Congolese armed forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel paramilitary group has displaced hundreds of thousands.

Rare but often fatal and highly contagious

Africa’s top public health body has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s Ituri province. There have been 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths so far. Uganda has also reported one death from a case it says was imported from neighboring Congo. (AP video shot by: Alfonso Nqunjana and Kayleen Morgan)

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. By WHO’s standards, it shows the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread and it requires a coordinated international response.

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In a separate statement on X on Sunday, the WHO Regional Office for Africa said that a team of 35 experts from the WHO and the Congolese Ministry of Health had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, along with 7 tons of emergency medical supplies and equipment.

The global response to previous declarations has been mixed. In 2024, when WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said that it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to . (AP)