World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Tuesday, 18 August that the Bundibugyo virus disease epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) poses a 'high' risk of further spread — both within the country and across international borders — as the outbreak has become the second-largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded. Nearly 5,000 people have been infected and more than 2,300 have died across six provinces and 55 health zones since the outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern three months ago.

Scale and Speed of the Outbreak

Tedros, speaking at the opening of the second meeting of the emergency committee convened under the International Health Regulations (IHR), described the pace of transmission as 'unprecedented.' He said the virus is spreading faster than any previous Ebola outbreak, driven by insecurity, displacement, and intense population movement along roads, rivers, and mining routes.

'The epidemic is far from being under control,' Tedros told committee members, who included representatives from the DRC, Uganda, and France. 'It had a big head start, and we are still playing catch-up,' he said.

Deaths Outside Treatment Centres: The Hidden Chains

Tedros flagged that a significant number of deaths are occurring at home and in communities — outside formal treatment centres and among individuals not on known contact lists. He called this the outbreak's most dangerous dimension.

'Every death like that points to a chain of transmission we have not yet found. Until every chain is found and broken, the epidemic will continue,' he said. This pattern of community-level deaths makes contact tracing exponentially harder and signals that official case counts may understate the true scale.

Cross-Border Spread: Uganda and France

Uganda successfully halted transmission following an initial spillover — a response Tedros commended. However, the virus was recently detected in France in an international traveller, underscoring the real risk of global spread.

'Borders may slow a response; they do not stop a virus,' Tedros warned. The detection in France — a high-income country with robust health infrastructure — illustrates that no geography is insulated from a fast-moving outbreak of this scale.

Response Efforts and Vaccine Trials

The WHO, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the DRC government, and partner organisations are scaling up community-based surveillance, expanding treatment capacity, supporting safe burials, and strengthening community engagement. Critically, for the first time, two vaccines specifically designed against the Bundibugyo virus have entered human trials. A separate cross-protective vaccine is advancing toward phase-three testing. The WHO-sponsored PARTNERS treatment trial has enrolled 100 patients.

The Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease outbreak — for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment — was formally declared by DRC authorities on 15 May.

What WHO Says Is Still Urgently Needed

Tedros called for faster data sharing, stronger surveillance, sustained financing, improved access and security, and closer cross-border coordination. He also cautioned against allowing the Ebola response to crowd out essential health services for other major threats, including malaria, cholera, pneumonia, and maternal mortality. With the emergency committee now in its second meeting, the coming weeks will be critical in determining whether the outbreak trajectory can be reversed.