The warning comes as health workers involved in the response strike over unpaid wages and the outbreak continues to grow in a conflict-affected region. Congo’s Ministry of Health had recorded 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 deaths as of Aug. 3, according to figures cited by The Associated Press.

The outbreak is concentrated in eastern Congo, particularly Ituri Province and the city of Bunia. It is described as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in the world, with the number of cases increasing faster than health officials can track and respond to them.

A response under pressure

The strike has added a labor dispute to an already difficult public-health emergency. Health workers have stopped working over unpaid wages during the response, raising concern about the ability of local and international teams to maintain the services needed to identify cases and limit transmission.

More than 100 health-care workers have been infected since the outbreak began, according to WHO reporting cited by AP. Those infections underscore the risks facing personnel working in treatment and disease-control operations and add pressure to a response that depends on trained staff in affected communities.

The outbreak’s concentration in eastern Congo is significant because the region is affected by conflict and has weakened health services. Those conditions can make it harder to detect infections, provide treatment and contain the disease, especially when health workers are absent from their posts or are not being paid.

Rising toll in eastern Congo

The case and death totals reported by Congo’s health ministry show the scale of the emergency. The 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 deaths were recorded as of Aug. 3, two days before Tedros’s warning. The figures may change as health officials identify additional cases and update the count.

The death toll had already passed 1,700 in earlier reporting, while the outbreak was described as moving faster than health officials could track. The latest figures indicate that the outbreak has continued to impose a heavy toll in Ituri Province and around Bunia.

WHO’s warning does not describe the outbreak as a pandemic or establish transmission beyond the affected area. Instead, it highlights a growing emergency in eastern Congo where disease control is being strained by the speed of the outbreak, risks to health workers and interruptions caused by the wage dispute.

Wider emergency pressures

The Ebola response is unfolding amid broader constraints on international health operations. In a 2026 emergency appeal, WHO said its work covered 36 emergencies worldwide and that health-emergency capacity was being limited by conflict, disease outbreaks and reduced humanitarian funding.

Those pressures matter for eastern Congo because containing Ebola requires sustained attention and functioning health services. The immediate challenge is to keep response operations running while health authorities confront the expanding caseload and protect workers who are themselves at risk of infection.

Tedros’s visit brought the warning directly to the country as Congo’s health ministry continued to report new totals. The next known measure of the outbreak will be whether response teams can slow the growth in cases and restore consistent participation by health workers. No outcome from the strike or a timetable for resolving the unpaid-wage dispute was identified in the reporting.

Ituri province in eastern Congo has been identified as the outbreak’s epicenter. The wider affected area is near South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda, and responders face rebel conflict and limited access to health care. Those conditions can make it harder to staff treatment facilities, monitor suspected cases and contain transmission.

A response under pressure

The central development is not a new case total or a declared global emergency. It is the WHO’s assessment that the outbreak is advancing more quickly than the measures intended to control it. The available report does not provide a current confirmed number of cases or deaths for the Congo outbreak.

At the same time, some health workers have stopped working over a lack of pay. The report does not establish that the strike has caused specific deaths or directly increased transmission. It does show that the response is facing a practical challenge: health services need personnel for treatment, surveillance and containment, while some workers say they have not been paid.

Access problems linked to rebel conflict add another obstacle. In eastern Congo, the combination of insecurity, limited health-care access and a rapidly growing outbreak creates risks for the basic functions of an Ebola response. Teams must be able to reach affected communities, identify possible infections and maintain care and monitoring.

Funding announced as the outbreak grows

The U.S. Department of State has announced an additional $242 million for Ebola response, preparedness and related humanitarian assistance. The announcement is broader than Ebola treatment alone, and the available information does not specify how much of that amount is dedicated solely to the outbreak.

The funding decision signals that the response is being treated as both an immediate health emergency and a preparedness challenge. But the announcement does not by itself resolve the operational problems described by the WHO: a response that is struggling to keep pace, unpaid front-line workers and difficult access in a conflict-affected setting.

The WHO described the Congo outbreak as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak and the second-largest on record. That distinction should not be confused with the historical totals from West Africa’s 2014–2016 outbreak, which recorded more than 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths. Those figures are historical regional totals, not current counts for Congo.

What is known next

The immediate task is to strengthen the response in and around Ituri while maintaining access to health care and essential outbreak work. That includes treatment, surveillance and containment, all of which depend on functioning health services and personnel able to work.

No further case or death total, resolution date for the strike or separate deadline for the U.S. funding was provided in the approved report. The next significant measure of progress will be whether response operations can catch up with the outbreak’s spread in eastern Congo, particularly while conflict and unpaid wages continue to disrupt access and staffing.

The walkout involved doctors, nurses and security staff who said they had not received two months of performance bonuses. The Associated Press reported that response officials said the payment problem was being resolved through mobile-money payments and that the backlog was expected to be cleared in the coming days. There has been no confirmation that the strike has ended.

An outbreak under operational pressure

According to DRC government data released July 24 and reported by the Associated Press, the country had recorded 2,973 confirmed cases and 1,309 deaths. Those figures may change as testing, reporting and backlog data are updated. The AP also reported that more than 100 health workers have been infected since the outbreak began, citing information from the World Health Organization.

The Bunia stoppage highlights a problem that extends beyond the virus itself: outbreak control depends on staff being present, protected and paid. Treatment centers need reliable workers to identify suspected cases, provide supportive care, collect samples, trace contacts, enforce infection-prevention procedures and support safe burials. If facilities lose staff or public trust, patients may arrive later, contacts may be missed and transmission may become harder to contain.

WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the response is also being complicated by limited health infrastructure, shortages of diagnostic and infection-control supplies, insecurity, violence against health workers and movement across borders.

Bundibugyo Ebola has no licensed vaccine or specific treatment

This outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo virus, a type of Ebola virus distinct from Ebola Zaire, for which licensed vaccines and specific treatments exist. WHO’s Africa office says there is currently no licensed vaccine or approved specific treatment for Bundibugyo virus disease.

That makes basic public-health operations especially important. WHO says the response is relying on early case detection, rapid diagnosis, isolation, infection prevention and control, contact tracing, supportive care, safe burial practices and community engagement. Research groups are evaluating candidate vaccines and investigational treatments, but those efforts have not yet produced a licensed countermeasure for this outbreak.

Regional risk is higher than global risk

WHO assesses the risk as very high inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo and high in Uganda and countries sharing land borders with affected countries. The agency rates the risk to the rest of Africa and the world as low. The higher regional assessment reflects ongoing transmission, cross-border movement and uneven readiness along travel and trade routes.

For U.S. readers, the CDC says no cases linked to this outbreak have been confirmed in the United States and that the likelihood of spread to the country remains very low. Travelers should rely on current CDC guidance for affected areas of the DRC and Uganda rather than assume that a low global risk eliminates the need for precautions.

The next key indicators will be whether payments restore staffing at Elikya, whether case growth slows and whether health authorities can maintain diagnosis, isolation and contact-tracing capacity in Bunia and other affected areas.

Sources

• Associated Press report on the Bunia treatment-center strike
• WHO Disease Outbreak News
• WHO Africa: DRC Ebola outbreak
• CDC Ebola outbreak situation summary