{"id":6013,"date":"2026-05-20T22:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo"},"modified":"2026-05-21T00:14:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:14:52","slug":"139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo","title":{"rendered":"139 Ebola Deaths Reported in Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>The World Health Organization announced that there are 600 suspected cases of Ebola virus and 139 suspected deaths, with numbers expected to rise due to the period during which the virus spread before the outbreak was detected in Congo and Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that the organization&#8217;s emergency committee met in Geneva and confirmed that the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus, from the rare Bundibugyo strain, represents a public health emergency of international concern, but it is not classified as a pandemic. Tedros said, &#8220;The World Health Organization assesses the risk of the outbreak as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is the first time the head of the World Health Organization has taken this step without consulting experts first, due to the seriousness of the situation. Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the emergency department at the World Health Organization, said at the same press conference: &#8220;Our top priority now is to identify all existing chains of transmission&#8230; This will enable us to accurately determine the extent of the outbreak and provide necessary care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This outbreak has raised concerns among experts because it managed to spread for weeks without being detected in a densely populated area suffering from widespread armed violence. The outbreak of the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus in the same region between 2018 and 2020 was the second deadliest outbreak ever, claiming nearly 2,300 lives.<\/p>\n<p>According to the World Health Organization, the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals, has a mortality rate of about 40%.<\/p>\n<p>In detailing the numbers of this outbreak, the World Health Organization reported that 51 cases have been confirmed in the Ituri and North Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda also reported two confirmed cases to the World Health Organization in the capital Kampala, including one death of a person who traveled from Congo to Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>The World Health Organization added that an American citizen working in Congo has been confirmed infected and was transferred to Germany. Experts from the World Health Organization suspect that the outbreak likely began two months ago, with the first suspected death reported on April 20, but investigations are still ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>World Health Organization officials believe that after the first death, there was widespread transmission of the infection, either at a funeral or in a healthcare facility. On May 5, widespread transmission of the infection was observed through a report on social media about deaths in local communities, according to them.<\/p>\n<p>On May 12, the interim government, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, sent an investigation team that collected samples. Eight out of 13 samples were confirmed to be infected with the Ebola virus.<\/p>\n<p>Tedros stated that the difficulty of detecting the rare strain through testing in a challenging environment affected by conflict complicated efforts to contain the outbreak in its early stages. He added that the early symptoms of the disease also resemble many other endemic diseases in the region, such as malaria.<\/p>\n<p>Experts noted that the delay in detecting the outbreak may also reflect gaps in preparedness due to cuts by the United States and other major donors to global health funding.<\/p>\n<p>Tedros stated that it is too early to determine whether funding cuts in Congo or to the World Health Organization contributed to any delays in detecting or responding to the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there is no vaccine available for the Bundibugyo strain. World Health Organization experts stated that there are two potential vaccines under study, but their development may take between three to nine months and will require clinical trials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. The World Health Organization announced that there are 600 suspected cases of Ebola virus and 139 suspected deaths, with numbers expected to rise due to the period during which the virus spread before the outbreak was detected in Congo and Uganda. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":6012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-6013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>139 Ebola Deaths Reported in Congo - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The World Health Organization announced that there are 600 suspected cases of Ebola virus and 139 suspected deaths\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"139 Ebola Deaths Reported in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The World Health Organization announced that there are 600 suspected cases of Ebola virus and 139 suspected deaths\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Africa Press English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T22:36:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T00:14:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/05\/sm_1779322229.665172.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"665\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"139 Ebola Deaths Reported in Congo\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T22:36:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-21T00:14:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo\"},\"wordCount\":628,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/05\/sm_1779322229.665172.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/139-ebola-deaths-reported-in-congo\",\"name\":\"139 Ebola Deaths Reported in Congo - 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