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STORY: WHO / TEDROS EBOLA UPDATE
TRT: 7:46
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 MAY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spreading rapidly. Previously, WHO assessed the risk as high at the national and regional levels and low at the global level. We are now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level.”
3. Wide shot, press briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
5. “So far, 82 cases have been confirmed in DRC, with seven confirmed deaths. But we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger. There are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.”6. Wide shot, press briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“The situation in Uganda is stable, with two cases confirmed in people who travelled from DRC, with one death. The measures taken in Uganda, including intense contact tracing and cancelling the Martyrs’ Day commemoration, appear to have been effective in preventing the further spread of the virus.
7. Wide shot, press briefing room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“An American national who was working in DRC has also been confirmed positive, and transferred to Germany for care. We are also aware of reports today about another American national who is a high-risk contact who has been transferred to the Czech Republic.”
9. Wide shot, press briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“The governments of DRC and Uganda are leading the response, with support from WHO and partners. In addition to our national staff in DRC, so far we have deployed 22 international staff to the field, including some of our most experienced people; And we have released 3.9 million U.S. dollars from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies.”
11. Wide shot, press briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“As you know, unlike many previous Ebola outbreaks, which were caused by Zaire virus, this outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics.”
13. Wide shot, press briefing room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Yesterday, WHO convened the leaders of several partner organizations under the interim Medical Countermeasures Network, to review the pipeline of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. The WHO R&D Blueprint has also convened its technical advisory group on therapeutics and recommended to prioritize two monoclonal antibodies to advance in clinical trials.”
15. Wide shot, press briefing room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“In addition, the advisory group recommended the evaluation of the antiviral obeldesivir in a clinical trial as post-exposure prophylaxis for people who are high risk contacts.”
17. Wide shot, press briefing room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“As you know, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in which the outbreak is occurring are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months, causing more than 100,000 people to be newly displaced.”
19. Wide shot, press briefing room
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Across both provinces, around 4 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance, 2 million are displaced, and 10 million face acute hunger. There is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population.”
21. Wide shot, press briefing room
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Anne Ancia, WHO Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
“This morning, we had our security team in Rwampara with the governor and the provincial health authorities talking to the population, discussing calming messages, risk protection messages. I just had a conversation with my security team there. They said the situation is becoming calmer, and we hope if the situation remains the same, that operation would be able to start again tomorrow.”
23. Wide shot, press briefing room
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Anne Ancia, WHO Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
“We've got insecurity against us. We've got movement of population against us. We've got events like the one of yesterday (in Rwampara) against us, but we stay strong, determined, focused. We will ramp up. We will scale up our response operation. We are doing it by the day.”
25. Wide shot, press briefing room
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, Director, Health Emergency Alert & Response Operations, WHO:
“The community does the first line of defence, where the community leaders start reporting unusual deaths and unsuspected. From there, clinical work, clinician health care workers go and assess that and triage. That's it. So, you move from an alert to suspected, we collect samples, and it becomes a confirmed. We will be getting more alerts, and it's really good to have those alerts and to be investigated. We had alerts from South Sudan, we have alerts from Kenya, the government of Kenya confirmed that investigation was done, was discarded. So that's a function of a well-defined system.”
27. Wide shot, press briefing room
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, Director, Health Emergency Alert & Response Operations, WHO:
“Risk assessment, we answer three questions. One, the potential risk for human health. Two, risk of an event is spreading. Third is the capacity available. And then from there, we look what's the likelihood and the consequence. From there, we assess. Looking right now, what clearly changed from when we did the initial risk assessment is the risk of event spreading has gone from a moderate to high, and the risk has gone very high.”
29. Wide shot, press briefing room
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Teresa Zakaria, Unit Head, Humanitarian and Disaster Action, Health Emergencies Interventions, WHO:
“(Regarding North Kivu and Itari provinces) Last year, 1.5 million people have additionally lost access to primary health care facilities, and we know from our partners that 85% of facilities face critical drug shortages. So, what all of these mean is that people, even if people are sick, they may be suspect cases, they cannot access health services, and therefore they cannot be detected, they cannot be diagnosed.”
31. Wide shot, press briefing room
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Teresa Zakaria, Unit Head, Humanitarian and Disaster Action, Health Emergencies Interventions, WHO:
“It is very important to highlight that within the outbreak response as well, we need to really make sure that essential health services for everyone in the two provinces are safeguarded, especially for those who have been forcibly displaced and extremely vulnerable.”
33. Wide shot, press briefing room
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa
“So, the bottom line here is the rise in cases is driven by a combination of early, undetected spread and a stronger surveillance. So, as we scale up our detection and response, we expect to see more cases initially before the curve begins to go down.”
35. Wide shot, press briefing room
36. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“A brief update on the hantavirus outbreak among passengers and crew on board the cruise ship MV Hondius. Today, the Netherlands confirmed an additional case among a crew member who disembarked in Tenerife, was repatriated to the Netherlands and has been isolating since then.”
37. Wide shot, press briefing room
38. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“There are now 12 reported cases and 3 reported deaths. No deaths have been reported since the 2nd of May, when the outbreak was first reported to WHO.”
39. Wide shot, press briefing room
40. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“We continue to urge affected countries to monitor all passengers and crew carefully for the remainder of the quarantine period. More than 600 contacts continue to be followed in 30 countries, and a small number of high-risk contacts are still being located.”
41. Wide shot, press briefing room
The World Health Organization (WHO) revised its risk assessment on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to “very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
WHO Director-General told reporters today (22 May) in Geneva that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is “spreading rapidly.”
He said, “So far, 82 cases have been confirmed in DRC, with seven confirmed deaths. But we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger. There are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.”
Dr Tedros also said the situation in Uganda is “stable”, with two cases confirmed in people who travelled from DRC, with one death.
“The measures taken in Uganda, including intense contact tracing and cancelling the Martyrs’ Day commemoration, appear to have been effective in preventing the further spread of the virus,” the WHO chief added.
He also noted that an American national who was working in DRC has also been confirmed positive, and transferred to Germany for care, adding that WHO is also “aware of reports today about another American national who is a high-risk contact who has been transferred to the Czech Republic.”
Dr Tedros said, “the governments of DRC and Uganda are leading the response, with support from WHO and partners.”
In addition to WHO’s national staff in DRC, so far the Organization has deployed 22 international staff to the field, “including some of our most experienced people; And we have released 3.9 million U.S. dollars from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies,” he added.
The Director-General highlighted, “unlike many previous Ebola outbreaks, which were caused by Zaire virus, this outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics.”
Dr Tedros said on Thursday (21 May), WHO convened the leaders of several partner organizations under the interim Medical Countermeasures Network, to review the pipeline of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. The WHO R&D Blueprint has also convened its technical advisory group on therapeutics and recommended to prioritize two monoclonal antibodies to advance in clinical trials.”
In addition, he said that the advisory group recommended the evaluation of the antiviral obeldesivir in a clinical trial as post-exposure prophylaxis for people who are high risk contacts.
The Director-General also noted the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in which the outbreak is occurring are “highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months, causing more than 100,000 people to be newly displaced.”
According to WHO, across both provinces, around four million people need urgent humanitarian assistance, two million are displaced, and 10 million face acute hunger.
“There is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population,” Dr Tedros said.
WHO’s Dr Anne Ancia said, “his morning, we had our security team in Rwampara with the governor and the provincial health authorities talking to the population, discussing calming messages, risk protection messages.”
She continued, “I just had a conversation with my security team there. They said the situation is becoming calmer, and we hope if the situation remains the same, that operation would be able to start again tomorrow.”
Dr Ancia added, “we've got insecurity against us. We've got movement of population against us. We've got events like the one of yesterday (in Rwampara) against us, but we stay strong, determined, focused. We will ramp up. We will scale up our response operation. We are doing it by the day.”
For his part, WHO’s Dr Abdirahman Mahamud said, “the community does the first line of defence, where the community leaders start reporting unusual deaths and unsuspected. From there, clinical work, clinician health care workers go and assess that and triage. That's it. So, you move from an alert to suspected, we collect samples, and it becomes a confirmed.”
He added, “we will be getting more alerts, and it's really good to have those alerts and to be investigated. We had alerts from South Sudan, we have alerts from Kenya, the government of Kenya confirmed that investigation was done, was discarded. So that's a function of a well-defined system.”
Dr Mahamud also said, “Risk assessment, we answer three questions. One, the potential risk for human health. Two, risk of an event is spreading. Third is the capacity available. And then from there, we look what's the likelihood and the consequence. From there, we assess. Looking right now, what clearly changed from when we did the initial risk assessment is the risk of event spreading has gone from a moderate to high, and the risk has gone very high.”
Regarding North Kivu and Itari provinces, WHO’s Dr Teresa Zakaria said, “last year, 1.5 million people have additionally lost access to primary health care facilities, and we know from our partners that 85 percent of facilities face critical drug shortages. So, what all of these mean is that people, even if people are sick, they may be suspect cases, they cannot access health services, and therefore they cannot be detected, they cannot be diagnosed.”
Dr Zakaria highlighted that “within the outbreak response as well, we need to really make sure that essential health services for everyone in the two provinces are safeguarded, especially for those who have been forcibly displaced and extremely vulnerable.”
WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi also briefed reporters.
He said, “the bottom line here is the rise in cases is driven by a combination of early, undetected spread and a stronger surveillance. So, as we scale up our detection and response, we expect to see more cases initially before the curve begins to go down.”
Moving onto the hantavirus outbreak among passengers and crew on board the cruise ship MV Hondius, WHO chief Dr Tedros said, “today, the Netherlands confirmed an additional case among a crew member who disembarked in Tenerife, was repatriated to the Netherlands and has been isolating since then.”
He said, “there are now 12 reported cases and three reported deaths. No deaths have been reported since the 2nd of May, when the outbreak was first reported to WHO.”
The Director-General urged affected countries to “monitor all passengers and crew carefully for the remainder of the quarantine period. More than 600 contacts continue to be followed in 30 countries, and a small number of high-risk contacts are still being located.”
