Global health emergency declared over Ebola outbreak

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared the Ebola disease outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern.

It comes after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths from the disease in the African nations.

The World Health Organization, in a post on X, said that the outbreak of the disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health body advised against the closure of international borders.

Officials first announced the spread of the disease in Congo on Friday, reporting 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases.

On Saturday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.

Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.

Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case that it said was imported from Congo.

Officials said that the patient died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and the WHO said that a second case has been reported in Kampala.

The two cases had no apparent links to each other and both patients had traveled from Congo, it added.

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people. The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.

WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. However, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.

In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.

Ebola symptoms

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

According to the NHS, Ebola symptoms can start between two and 21 days after being infected.

They can appear suddenly and include flu-like symptoms, such as a high temperature, extreme tiredness and a headache.

Other symptoms include:

Ebola patients are treated in isolation in hospital and given specialist care in an ICU.