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STORY: WHO / EBOLA TEDROS UPDATE
TRT: 5:42
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 JUNE 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“In DRC, 344 cases have been confirmed, including 60 deaths, in 24 health zones across three different provinces; Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. The number of suspected cases has now been reduced to 116 from over 1,000 last week, as we work through the backlog, either confirming them or ruling them out.
3. Wide shot, press briefing room
4 SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“In Uganda, there is one confirmed death and 15 confirmed cases, including a Congolese resident who travelled to the United Arab Emirates, and then to Uganda. WHO is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel, and to facilitate contact tracing. We thank both the UAE and Uganda for their collaboration to mitigate the risks related to this case.”
5. Wide shot, press briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“In addition, a U.S. citizen who was infected in DRC is still receiving care in Germany.”
7. Wide shot, press briefing room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“WHO’s risk assessment remains unchanged: very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level.”
9. Wide shot, press briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“The outbreak had a big head start, and we’re still behind, but under the leadership of the government of DRC, we are catching up. In Bunia there are now three treatment centres with a capacity of 80 beds, and there are also treatment units in Mungbwalo, Rwampara, Beni, Goma and Bukavu, and more are on the way.”
11. Wide shot, press briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“So far, six people have recovered in DRC and two in Uganda, showing that people can survive Ebola if they have access to care and go to health facilities as soon as they show symptoms.”
13. Wide shot, press briefing room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“One of our key priorities is to scale up laboratory and diagnostic capacity, to reduce delays in case confirmation and support faster response decisions.”
15. Wide shot, press briefing room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“We also need to scale up readiness, including surveillance, laboratory diagnostics and access to health services in neighbouring provinces and countries.”
17. Wide shot, press briefing room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Contact tracing in the DRC is not yet where it needs to be. Only about 45% of contacts have been followed up, and to get ahead of the outbreak we need to get that number up to above 90 percent. Insecurity, displacement and mobile populations make contact tracing especially difficult.”
19. Wide shot, press briefing room
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response. WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings to prevent the exportation of cases and contacts. We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.”
21. Wide shot, press briefing room
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Community mistrust is a serious barrier. Some community leaders told me that they believe Ebola is not real. Building trust with the communities is therefore critical to bringing the outbreak under control.”
23. Wide shot, press briefing room
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“We are fighting this outbreak without vaccines or therapeutics. WHO and partners are working on advancing clinical trials as quickly as possible.”
25. Wide shot, press briefing room
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Although vaccines and therapeutics would be a big help, the key to ending this outbreak is not biomedical. It’s leadership, ownership, partnership and trust: Government leadership; Community ownership; Strong partnership between the many actors involved, working with one budget, one plan and one report; And building trust in the affected communities.”
27. Wide shot, press briefing room
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“One of the things I heard from the community leaders is that they worry that the response to Ebola may take resources away from the health and humanitarian services they rely on for their many other needs.”
29. Wide shot, press briefing room
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“If the people of Ituri survive Ebola only to die from malaria or malnutrition, or pneumonia or diarrheal disease or HIV or diabetes, we have not really helped them. For now, WHO and our partners are committed to ending this outbreak under the leadership of the (DRC) government. And when it does end, we will remain equally committed to supporting the government and the local communities to build the health and humanitarian services they need and deserve.”
31. Wide shot, press briefing room
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“A response is growing. You know, magic is happening. If you see a treatment centre being born out of a derelict site, colleagues working together, not only to provide treatment but to provide water, hygiene, sometimes even food set up, you know, bringing hope back to communities.”
33. Wide shot, press briefing room
The World Health Organization (WHO) said there are 344 confirmed Ebola cases, including 60 deaths, in 24 health zones across three different provinces - Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The number of suspected cases has now been reduced to 116 from over 1,000 last week.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke to reporters today (3 Jun) in Geneva. He said, “in Uganda, there is one confirmed death and 15 confirmed cases, including a Congolese resident who travelled to the United Arab Emirates, and then to Uganda.”
He added that WHO is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to “gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel, and to facilitate contact tracing. We thank both the UAE and Uganda for their collaboration to mitigate the risks related to this case.”
Dr Tedros also said a US citizen who was infected in DRC is still receiving care in Germany.
He reiterated, “WHO’s risk assessment remains unchanged: very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level.”
“The outbreak had a big head start, and we’re still behind, but under the leadership of the government of DRC, we are catching up,” the Director-General said, adding that in Bunia there are now three treatment centres with a capacity of 80 beds, and there are also treatment units in Mungbwalo, Rwampara, Beni, Goma and Bukavu, and more are on the way.
Dr Tedros said, “so far, six people have recovered in DRC and two in Uganda, showing that people can survive Ebola if they have access to care and go to health facilities as soon as they show symptoms.”
The WHO chief highlighted that one of the key priorities is to scale up laboratory and diagnostic capacity, “to reduce delays in case confirmation and support faster response decisions.”
Dr Tedros added, “we also need to scale up readiness, including surveillance, laboratory diagnostics and access to health services in neighbouring provinces and countries.”
The Director-General said, “contact tracing in the DRC is not yet where it needs to be. Only about 45 percent of contacts have been followed up, and to get ahead of the outbreak we need to get that number up to above 90 percent. Insecurity, displacement and mobile populations make contact tracing especially difficult.”
Dr Tedros also said, “blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response,” adding that WHO recommends “exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings to prevent the exportation of cases and contacts. We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.”
The Director-General also noted that community mistrust is “a serious barrier.”
He said, “some community leaders told me that they believe Ebola is not real. Building trust with the communities is therefore critical to bringing the outbreak under control.”
Dr Tedros said, “we are fighting this outbreak without vaccines or therapeutics. WHO and partners are working on advancing clinical trials as quickly as possible.”
“Although vaccines and therapeutics would be a big help, the key to ending this outbreak is not biomedical. It’s leadership, ownership, partnership and trust: Government leadership; Community ownership; Strong partnership between the many actors involved, working with one budget, one plan and one report; And building trust in the affected communities,” the WHO chief emphasized.
He also said, “one of the things I heard from the community leaders is that they worry that the response to Ebola may take resources away from the health and humanitarian services they rely on for their many other needs.”
“If the people of Ituri survive Ebola only to die from malaria or malnutrition, or pneumonia or diarrheal disease or HIV or diabetes, we have not really helped them,” Dr Tedros said, adding that WHO and it partners are “committed to ending this outbreak under the leadership of the (DRC) government. And when it does end, we will remain equally committed to supporting the government and the local communities to build the health and humanitarian services they need and deserve.”
WHO’s Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu said, “a response is growing. You know, magic is happening. If you see a treatment centre being born out of a derelict site, colleagues working together, not only to provide treatment but to provide water, hygiene, sometimes even food set up, you know, bringing hope back to communities.”
