WHO Warns DRC Ebola Outbreak Outstrips Response Capacity, Urges Immediate Funding

GENEVA, Aug 4 — The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that the escalating Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed existing response capacity, urging immediate financial and operational support to contain the virus.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Dr Vasee Moorthy, Acting Lead of WHO’s Research and Development (R&D) Blueprint, emphasized the unprecedented scale of the health crisis.

“The scale of this outbreak is expanding beyond current response capacities to manage it. This is the largest outbreak the country has ever faced,” Dr Moorthy said.

Dr Moorthy stressed that emergency response operations require an urgent influx of funding and resources to expand treatment capacity, reinforce field investigation units, deploy safe burial teams, and mobilize community health workers. He added that containment efforts must focus on active transmission hotspots and areas at high risk of impending spread.

As of August 1, the outbreak has recorded 3,748 confirmed cases and 1,657 confirmed deaths, with 708 patients successfully recovering. Infections have been reported across 49 health zones in five provinces, with approximately 17,000 close contacts currently under surveillance, over 80 percent of whom are monitored daily.

Addressing medical countermeasures, Dr Moorthy noted that no specific treatment, vaccine, or post-exposure preventive drug has yet been proven safe and effective against the Ebola Bundibugyo strain, though early access to proactive supportive care significantly improves survival rates.

In response, clinical trials evaluating experimental therapies and post-exposure prophylaxis are currently underway in the Congo, while two candidate vaccines tailored specifically for the Bundibugyo species have progressed to Phase 1 clinical trials in the United Kingdom and Canada.

–NMT