The World Health Organization, WHO, has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, warning that the scale of infections could be far greater than currently reported.

According to reports by channelstv, and theguardian.com, the outbreak linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus has already killed more than 80 people, with hundreds of suspected infections recorded across affected areas.

WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the emergency declaration on Sunday, describing the outbreak as an extraordinary public health threat requiring urgent international mobilisation.

The global health agency said at least 88 deaths and more than 330 suspected cases had been recorded, mainly in Ituri Province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which borders Uganda and South Sudan. Other reports indicated that more than 246 suspected infections had already been identified, alongside confirmed cases in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and in Kinshasa and Goma in the DRC.

WHO warned that the actual number of infections and the geographic spread of the outbreak remained uncertain.

“There are significant uncertainties as to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event,” the organisation said.

The agency added that the increasing number of suspected infections, the confirmation of cases in multiple countries and the high positivity rate of initial laboratory tests suggested that the outbreak could be “much larger than what is currently being detected and reported.”

Health authorities confirmed that the outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, one of the rarest forms of the virus first identified in Uganda in 2007. Unlike the more common Zaire strain, there are currently no approved vaccines, specific treatments or rapid diagnostic tests for the Bundibugyo variant.

DR Congo’s Health Minister, Samuel-Roger Kamba, warned that the strain posed a major threat because of its high fatality rate and the absence of effective medical countermeasures.

“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,” he said.

“This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50 per cent.”

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, described the pace of the outbreak as alarming and announced plans for a large-scale emergency intervention.

MSF Emergency Programme Manager, Trish Newport, said the speed of transmission and cross-border spread had raised fears of a wider regional health crisis.

“The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” she said.

The WHO said the outbreak was unfolding in conflict-affected areas of eastern Congo where insecurity, population displacement and overcrowded living conditions could accelerate transmission.

The organisation also noted that poor transport and communication infrastructure in the vast Central African nation was complicating emergency response efforts and slowing the movement of medical personnel and supplies.

On Sunday, Congolese authorities confirmed another Ebola case in Goma, a major eastern city currently affected by insecurity linked to armed conflict.

Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research, INRB, said the latest confirmed patient was the wife of a man who had died from Ebola in Bunia.

“A positive case in Goma has been confirmed,” he said.

“It involves the wife of a man who died of Ebola in Bunia, who travelled to Goma after her husband’s death whilst already infected.”

Residents in affected communities described scenes of fear and growing uncertainty as deaths mounted.

“We’ve been seeing people die for the past two weeks,” local civil society representative Isaac Nyakulinda told AFP.

“There is nowhere to isolate the sick. They are dying at home, and their bodies are being handled by family members,” he added.

Another resident of Bunia, Jean Marc Asimwe, said communities had witnessed unusually high numbers of burials in recent days.

“Every day, people are dying,” he said.

“In a single day, we bury two, three or even more people.”

Health officials said the first known patient in the latest outbreak was a nurse who visited a medical facility in Bunia on April 24 with symptoms linked to Ebola.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC, said delays in detecting the outbreak may have allowed the virus to spread undetected across communities and borders before emergency measures were activated.

WHO stressed that although the outbreak had not yet met the criteria for a pandemic emergency, the international declaration was intended to trigger urgent global support, funding, medical deployments and cross-border coordination.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister and co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Helen Clark, commended WHO for acting swiftly.

“The world must now respond with the speed and solidarity this emergency demands,” she said.

Ebola is a severe viral haemorrhagic disease believed to originate from bats. It spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, vomit and sweat from infected persons and can cause fever, vomiting, severe bleeding and organ failure.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded 17 Ebola outbreaks over the years. Its deadliest outbreak, between 2018 and 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people. Another outbreak in 2025 claimed at least 34 lives before it was officially declared over in December.

Health authorities say surveillance, contact tracing and emergency containment operations are continuing across affected regions as fears grow over further spread within Central and East Africa.