World Health Organization declares emergency over Ebola threat

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, according to a statement published on May 15 on the organization’s website.

The WHO said the situation constitutes an epidemic rather than a pandemic, while noting significant uncertainty regarding the actual number of infections and the scale of the virus’s spread.

According to the latest data, 80 deaths potentially linked to Ebola have been recorded across three areas in the DRC, along with 246 suspected cases, eight of which have been laboratory-confirmed. In Uganda’s capital Kampala, two confirmed cases were detected among individuals arriving from the DRC, one of whom died.

DRC Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba officially confirmed a new outbreak in the Mongbwalu and Rwampara areas of Ituri province. The first reported case was a nurse from Bunia infected with the Ebola Bundibugyo strain. While this variant is considered less lethal than the Ebola Zaire strain, no vaccine exists for it, complicating containment efforts.

By Jeyhun Aghazada