The World Health Organization (WHO) had issued a stark warning on Saturday, highlighting that the current Ebola outbreak was “intensifying at an exceptional pace” and urging a significant escalation in the health response. Congolese authorities have reported a total of 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 fatalities since the epidemic began. This current crisis follows the country’s deadliest previous outbreak between 2018 and 2020, which claimed nearly 2,300 lives among 3,500 recorded infections.

The Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on Tuesday. He was scheduled to meet with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi on Wednesday, as confirmed by a WHO representative in Kinshasa, who provided no further details.

The head of the global health body had previously visited Ituri in the northeast at the end of May, a region that serves as the epicenter of the current epidemic and accounts for almost 90% of all reported cases. This latest surge is attributed to the Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, for which no vaccine or specific treatment is currently available. The outbreak disproportionately affects areas characterized by weak state presence and severely underdeveloped health infrastructure.

“Regrettably, the epidemic continues to spread at a rate that overwhelms our response capabilities,” stated Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson, during a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. He called for “additional financial support” and resources to bolster crucial areas such as “treatment capacity, field investigation teams, and safe burial teams.”

Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever transmitted through contact with bodily fluids, has tragically claimed over 15,000 lives across Africa over the past five decades. The ongoing epidemic has spread across five provinces of the DRC in the last two months: Ituri, Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu, Haut-Uélé, and Tshopo.

On Tuesday, Canada granted authorization to the American pharmaceutical giant Moderna to commence clinical trials for a vaccine targeting the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. Furthermore, the vaccine identified by the WHO as “the most promising,” known as “rVSV Bundibugyo,” is also slated for development by Hilleman Laboratories, based in Singapore.

By late July, a pioneering volunteer had already received the initial dose of another Bundibugyo vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, which utilizes technology similar to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Several other initiatives are also focused on rapidly testing treatments against the Bundibugyo strain, including the antiviral drugs remdesivir and obeldesivir, alongside a monoclonal antibody designated MBP134.

The DRC officially declared its 17th Ebola epidemic on May 15th, several weeks after its onset, impacting its vast territory with a population exceeding 100 million inhabitants.