WHO chief warns Ebola response in DR Congo falling behind outbreak

GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization said the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spreading faster than control efforts can contain it. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited Kinshasa for the second time since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, wrote on X that partners agreed on the urgent need to "substantially strengthen" response operations in affected areas. Ghebreyesus said new case numbers in some hotspots doubled in the past week alone. According to figures released by the Congolese Health Ministry through Monday, 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 deaths have been recorded, making the epidemic the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record after the 2014–2016 West Africa crisis. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the "Bundibugyo" strain driving the current outbreak. The strain has previously appeared in only two outbreaks, in 2007 and 2012, and official reports put the case fatality rate among recent patients at 45 percent. Ghebreyesus did not announce additional specific measures, and no further details on the next phase of the response were immediately available.