The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still moving faster than response efforts, World Health Organization officials said, as the Bundibugyo strain has infected more than 1,000 people in Congo and 20 in neighboring Uganda. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency had made progress but continued to face major obstacles after the outbreak was detected late and was likely circulating for months before it was officially declared on May 15. Officials have described it as the highest first-month total recorded for an Ebola outbreak.
Health workers operating in the epicenter in Ituri province are facing dangerous conditions that have disrupted containment measures. WHO officials said there have been seven security incidents targeting frontline staff, who face abduction threats and other crimes. Anger and mistrust in communities have also led to attacks on treatment sites and resistance to burial protocols intended to limit transmission. In one funeral incident in Ituri, Red Cross volunteers conducting a safe burial were attacked by mourners; four were hospitalized after being beaten, while one volunteer said he escaped by removing his Red Cross tunic and disguising himself before returning to work days later.
Officials say the response has been complicated by both geography and population movement. The outbreak's center is in a mining area that draws transient workers from across the country, making contact tracing more difficult when infected people have limited ties to local communities or travel home before being identified. Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said the whereabouts of nearly 300 people who tested positive were unknown, raising concerns about wider community transmission. He also said more than 1 million displaced people are living in camps that health workers cannot access, limiting surveillance and tracing. DRC authorities have said people leaving affected provinces must wait 21 days before traveling onward.
Even as officials warn of the scale of the challenge, they say some parts of the response are expanding. Congo's testing capacity has risen to about 2,000 tests a day from 30 at the start of the outbreak, and WHO says decentralizing testing is now a priority. Authorities also plan to recruit 20,000 local community health workers to strengthen tracing efforts. WHO modeling cited by Africa CDC projects thousands more cases and deaths by mid-September under a central scenario, though researchers said there are signs the response may be slowing transmission. Africa CDC and WHO have said hundreds of millions of dollars are needed for the health response, with total needs rising far higher when the broader humanitarian crisis is included.