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STORY: WHO / EBOLA PRESSER UPDATE
TRT: 07:50
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19, 20 MAY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior WHO Headquarters
20 MAY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Early on Sunday, I declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern over an epidemic of Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.”
4. Wide shot, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“After declaring the PHEIC, I immediately convened an Emergency Committee under the IHR, which met yesterday and agreed that the situation is a public health emergency of international concern, but is not a pandemic emergency.”
6. Wide shot, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO assesses the risk of the epidemic as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level.”
8. Wide shot, press room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in the DRC, in the northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, including in the cites of Bunia and Goma, although we know the scale of the epidemic in DRC is much larger.”
10. Wide shot, press room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Uganda has also informed WHO of two confirmed cases in the capital Kampala, including one death, among two individuals who travelled from DRC to Uganda.”
12. Wide shot, press room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“An American national who was working in DRC has also been confirmed positive and been transferred to Germany.”
14. Wide shot, press room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Beyond the confirmed cases, there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected.”
16. Wide shot, press room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Deaths have been reported among health workers, indicating healthcare-associated transmission.”
18. Wide shot, press room
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“There is significant population movement in the area. The province of Ituri is highly insecure. Conflict has intensified since late 2025, and fighting has escalated significantly over the past two months, with over 100,000 people newly displaced.”
20. Wide shot, press room
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The area is also a mining zone, with high levels of population movement that increase the risk of further spread.”
22. Wide shot, press room
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“This epidemic is caused by Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola virus for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics.”
24. Wide shot, press room
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO has a team on the ground supporting national authorities to respond. We have deployed people, supplies, equipment, and funds. To support our response, I have approved an additional 3.4 million US dollars from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies, bringing the total to 3.9 million dollars.”
26. Wide shot, press room
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“In the absence of vaccines and therapeutics, there are many other measures countries can take to stop the spread of the virus and save lives, which the Emergency Committee has outlined in its temporary recommendations.”
28. Wide shot, press room
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Lucille Blumberg, Chair, IHR Emergency Committee, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Our deliberations around recommendations were considered in the context of the many challenges of this outbreak. The scale of the outbreak, the less common Bundibugyo strain for which there are no available specific drugs and vaccines, and diagnostics required are different to those that have been used in previous outbreaks of Ebola.”
30. Wide shot, press room
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Lucille Blumberg, Chair, IHR Emergency Committee, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The context of the outbreak in the Eastern DRC and the humanitarian crisis needs and security challenges, highly mobile population, close proximity to many borders, the need to protect healthcare workers, and the need to continue important other programs for diseases such as TB, malaria, maternal and child health are highly considered.”
32. Wide shot, press room
33. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Lucille Blumberg, Chair, IHR Emergency Committee, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The people in the area and those who respond need to be kept safe and allowed to be able to do what they need to do in a critical time such as this.”
34. Wide shot, press room
35. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Vasee Moothy, Lead Acting, R&D Blueprint, Office of Chief Scientist, World Health Organization (WHO):
“There is a rVSV Bundibugyo vaccine, so this would be the equivalent of Ervebo, which would be specific for Bundibugyo. There are no doses of this which are currently available for clinical trial. So, this needs to be prioritised as the most promising Bundibugyo candidate vaccine. The information that we have is that this is likely to take six to nine months.”
36. Wide shot, press room
37. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Vasee Moothy, Lead Acting, R&D Blueprint, Office of Chief Scientist, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Before that, there is another candidate vaccine that is being developed that is based on the ChAdOx1 platform, so the same platform that was the AstraZeneca vaccine but with Bundibugyo as the insert. That is a collaboration between Oxford and Serum Institute of India. They are manufacturing that as we speak, but there is no animal data to support that. And so, it is possible that doses of that could be available for clinical trial in two to three months, but there is a lot of uncertainty about that. And it will depend on the animal data as to whether that is considered a promising candidate research vaccine for Bundibugyo.”
38. Wide shot, press room
39. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, Regional Director for Africa, World Health Organization (WHO):
“So, in remote or insecure areas, it can take time for cases to be recognized. Samples transported. I said the other day, from Ituri to Kinshasa is 1,700km. So, until diagnosis is confirmed, it's very important to emphasize that primary responsibility for detecting outbreaks rests with national health authorities as part of the International Health Regulation framework. So, the approach to support countries technically, operationally, and with coordination so that signals are rapidly investigated and confirmed.”
40. Wide shot, press room
41. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The biggest lesson we've learned through all our Ebola responses is that we can't do this without prioritizing the community. So, if we think that we are going to jump in there and solve all the problems, which is the instinct of many people who work in this field, then we will not have learned the lessons of history.”
Wide shot, press room
42. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We have to work with the national institutions, the communities, the people. It is only through them and the confidence that we can build in them that that we will be able to identify these cases.”
19 MAY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
43. Various shots, Ebola Emergency Committee meeting
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Chief, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, today (20 May) told reporters in Geneva that 51 cases of Ebola Virus Disease have been confirmed in the DRC, with almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. He said, “we expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected.”
Dr. Tedros noted that after he had declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern over an epidemic of Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda on Sunday, he “immediately convened an Emergency Committee under the IHR, which met yesterday and agreed that the situation is a public health emergency of international concern, but is not a pandemic emergency.”
He said, “WHO assesses the risk of the epidemic as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level.”
Dr Tedros said, “we know the scale of the epidemic in DRC is much larger.”
Uganda, he said, “has also informed WHO of two confirmed cases in the capital Kampala, including one death, among two individuals who travelled from DRC to Uganda,” while “an American national who was working in DRC has also been confirmed positive, and been transferred to Germany.”
The WHO Chief noted that “deaths have been reported among health workers, indicating healthcare-associated transmission.”
He told reporters that “the province of Ituri is highly insecure” with significant population movement in the area, and “conflict has intensified since late 2025, and fighting has escalated significantly over the past two months, with over 100,000 people newly displaced.”
Dr. Tedros said, “the area is also a mining zone, with high levels of population movement that increase the risk of further spread.”
He pointed out that this epidemic “is caused by Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola virus for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics.”
The Director-General said, “WHO has a team on the ground supporting national authorities to respond. We have deployed people, supplies, equipment, and funds. To support our response, I have approved an additional 3.4 million US dollars from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies, bringing the total to 3.9 million dollars.”
He said, “in the absence of vaccines and therapeutics, there are many other measures countries can take to stop the spread of the virus and save lives, which the Emergency Committee has outlined in its temporary recommendations.”
Briefing via VTC, the Chair of WHO’s IHR Emergency Committee, Professor Lucille Blumberg, said, “our deliberations around recommendations were considered in the context of the many challenges of this outbreak. The scale of the outbreak, the less common Bundibugyo strain for which there are no available specific drugs and vaccines, and diagnostics required are different to those that have been used in previous outbreaks of Ebola.”
Professor Blumberg said, “the context of the outbreak in the Eastern DRC and the humanitarian crisis needs and security challenges, highly mobile population, close proximity to many borders, the need to protect healthcare workers, and the need to continue important other programs for diseases such as TB, malaria, maternal and child health are highly considered.”
She said, “the people in the area and those who respond need to be kept safe and allowed to be able to do what they need to do in a critical time such as this.”
For his part, the acting Lead of the R&D Blueprint, Office of Chief Scientist, Dr Vasee Moothy, said, “there is a rVSV Bundibugyo vaccine, so this would be the equivalent of Ervebo, which would be specific for Bundibugyo. There are no doses of this which are currently available for clinical trial. So, this needs to be prioritised as the most promising Bundibugyo candidate vaccine. The information that we have is that this is likely to take six to nine months.”
Dr. Moothy said, “before that, there is another candidate vaccine that is being developed that is based on the ChAdOx1 platform, so the same platform that was the AstraZeneca vaccine but with Bundibugyo as the insert. That is a collaboration between Oxford and Serum Institute of India. They are manufacturing that as we speak, but there is no animal data to support that. And so, it is possible that doses of that could be available for clinical trial in two to three months, but there is a lot of uncertainty about that. And it will depend on the animal data as to whether that is considered a promising candidate research vaccine for Bundibugyo.”
WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, told reporters, “in remote or insecure areas, it can take time for cases to be recognized. Samples transported. I said the other day, from Ituri to Kinshasa is 1,700km. So, until diagnosis is confirmed, it's very important to emphasize that primary responsibility for detecting outbreaks rests with national health authorities as part of the International Health Regulation framework. So, the approach to support countries technically, operationally, and with coordination so that signals are rapidly investigated and confirmed.”
For his part, the Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said, “the biggest lesson we've learned through all our Ebola responses is that we can't do this without prioritizing the community. So, if we think that we are going to jump in there and solve all the problems, which is the instinct of many people who work in this field, then we will not have learned the lessons of history.”
Dr. Ihekweazu said, “we have to work with the national institutions, the communities, the people. It is only through them and the confidence that we can build in them that that we will be able to identify these cases.”
