By Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer in Geneva
18
August 2026
- Ambulance attack highlights dangers
facing responders - Motorbike riders are key to
tracking infections - Surveillance and treatment
capacity reinforced
“Almost on a daily basis
we face some kind of reaction from the communities,” said
Dr Thierno Baldé, WHO Incident Manager for the Bundibugyo
virus disease in the DRC. “These are difficult situations.
People are having their relatives who are sick, who are
dying.”
Speaking via video from the outbreak’s
epicentre in Bunia, the medic told reporters in Geneva that
on Monday, one of the ambulances used in the response was
attacked. It was not an isolated incident.
According
to local authorities on Monday, the Ebola Bundibugyo
outbreak has killed 2,325 people, surpassing the 2,299
deaths recorded in the DRC’s 2018-2020 outbreak,
previously the most lethal. The fatality rate has risen to
46 per cent, according to Government data.
Dr Baldé
said that the milestone of 5,000 confirmed cases has been
crossed and confirmed that cases have been identified in a
sixth province, Bas-Uele.
Working day and
night
“The situation is quite difficult, but people
are working here days and nights trying to control this
outbreak,” Dr Baldé insisted.
“We are really
recentering all of the operational approach, all of our
activities, around the engagement of the communities,” the
WHO official said.
Describing the multi-pronged
scale-up underway, he said that one of the key targets of
the response is the association of motorbike riders,
involved in the transport of patients and dead
bodies.
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Hand-washing stations and disinfectant have
been made available, but the new objective is to recruit
them as surveillance and response officers, Dr Baldé
said.
The WHO medic explained that the bikers are one
of the most affected categories in the population because of
their transport duties. Some have lost multiple family
members to the virus.
Because the motorbike riders are
a key link in the chain of disease surveillance, they need
to “be able to tell us wherever they transport a sick
person”, contact the surveillance team and enable the
suspected case to be tested, Dr Baldé explained.
This
grassroots engagement is taking place “in a very dignified
manner”, Dr Baldé said, “by convincing them, explaining
to them…this is for the good of themselves, the good of
their family”.
Treatment capacity push
In
other response measures, WHO plans to deploy 100 additional
expert epidemiologists in health zones. They will be
supported by more than 500 community health workers who can
pursue contact tracing and identify infected individuals and
convince them to seek treatment.
Some 400 beds have
been added in facilities in various localities over the past
two weeks.
Dr Baldé insisted that an extra push is
needed to ensure safe and dignified burials “by engaging
those local people who are doing that in the villages and
equipping them with chlorine and gloves “to be able to
handle these bodies in a very safe manner”.
The WHO
official highlighted the localities of Lita and Nizi as
examples of progress today, whereas “we were overwhelmed by
the number of community deaths about six weeks ago, seven
weeks ago”.
“Today, we are reporting only few
cases, few deaths, and those deaths are being safely and
dignifiedly, buried at the right time…We have seen a kind
of stabilization of the situation where we are capable of
intervening as quick as possible,” he concluded.
The
outbreak of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease, for which there
is no vaccine and no approved treatment, was declared by DRC
authorities on 15 May.
Experts meet
On
Tuesday, the International Health Regulations Emergency
Committee met for the second time on the epidemic, which has
already been declared a public health emergency of
international concern. The panel was expected to advise on
the current risk level in its recommendations to
countries.
In his remarks to the panel, WHO
Director-General noted that clinical trials are advancing
for vaccines and therapeutics specifically to treat
Bundibugyo virus.
For the first time, two vaccines
designed specifically against Bundibugyo virus have entered
human trials; a separate vaccine has shown cross-protection
in animal studies and it is being proposed for phase III
trial. This is the third of four phases of clinical trials
and often precedes approval for a new treatment.
“The
response still needs faster data sharing, enhanced
surveillance, sustained financing, access and security, and
stronger cross-border coordination,” Tedros
insisted.
Equally, “we must also remember that Ebola
is only one threat the people of DRC face, including
maternal mortality, diarrheal disease, pneumonia, malaria,
cholera and more”, the WHO chief stressed. “Even as we fight
to end this epidemic, we cannot allow the response to
disrupt access to other essential health
services.”
According to WHO’s attacks on healthcare
tracker, there have been 18 incidents – including six where
people have died – since 1 January, including 14 on
facilities, two on medical transport and 26 on health
personnel and
patients.
