{"id":686657,"date":"2026-05-22T16:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/686657\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:14:08","slug":"who-raises-risk-of-ebola-turning-into-a-national-outbreak-in-congo-to-very-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/686657\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO raises risk of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in Congo to \u2018very high\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Health workers arrive at a treatment centre for disinfection exercises in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday.Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization has raised the risk of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to \u201cvery high.\u201d <\/p>\n

The strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, was declared an emergency of international concern by the WHO on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level,\u201d WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.<\/p>\n

So far, 82 cases have been confirmed in Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, 177 suspected deaths and almost 750 suspected cases. The situation in Uganda is stable, with two cases confirmed in people who travelled from the DRC, one of them fatal, Tedros said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potential of this virus spreading rapidly is high, very high, and that changed the whole dynamic,\u201d said Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO Director of Health Emergency Alert & Response Operations.<\/p>\n

Measures taken in Uganda, including intense contact tracing and cancellation of a mass gathering, appear to have been effective in stemming the spread of the virus, Tedros said.<\/p>\n

Crowd torches Ebola treatment site in Congo as new cases spread<\/a><\/p>\n

A U.S. national who was working in Congo has been confirmed to have the virus and been transferred to Germany for care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also aware of reports today about another American national with a high-risk contact who has been transferred to the Czech Republic,\u201d Tedros added.<\/p>\n

The WHO\u2019s chief scientist, Sylvie Briand, said an antiviral treatment called Obeldesivir could be used among Ebola contacts to prevent them from developing the disease.<\/p>\n

Obeldesivir is an experimental oral COVID antiviral drug from Gilead Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a promising treatment drug, but it has still to be implemented under a very, very strict protocol,\u201d Briand said.<\/p>\n

The WHO said there were early signs of surveillance working as it was picking up more cases. However, it was having to catch up as the outbreak likely started two months ago but was only declared last Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sprinting behind, so that we can really try to control this outbreak. Because it [the virus] is still transmitting for the time being, the number will keep rising for some time,\u201d said WHO\u2019s representative in DRC, Anne Ancia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Health workers arrive at a treatment centre for disinfection exercises in Rwampara, Congo,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-686657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}