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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The World Health Organization (WHO) held an Emergency Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, following a surge in the death toll due to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The meeting was convened after WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
According to Al Jazeera report, the death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has risen to approximately 131 people out of 513 suspected cases. Previously, local health authorities reported 91 deaths out of 350 suspected cases.
DRC Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba stated that the data is still preliminary. "We have recorded roughly 131 deaths in total and we have around 513 suspected cases," Kamba told Congo's national television, as quoted by France24.
Kamba emphasized that the investigation is ongoing to confirm whether all deaths are indeed related to Ebola.
WHO Concerned about the Rate of Spread
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the outbreak's development, which has now spread to Uganda.
"deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic," Tedros said in his address to the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Tuesday.
He stated that the global health emergency status was declared on Sunday, May 17, 2026. "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," Tedros said.
He added that the WHO Emergency Committee, comprising international experts, will provide technical advice and recommendations to WHO on handling the outbreak.
Outbreak Centered in Border Area
The outbreak is centered in Ituri Province, in the northeastern region of DRC bordering Uganda and South Sudan. As a gold mining area, the region has high population mobility, increasing the risk of cross-border transmission.
The virus has spread to other provinces up to around 200 kilometers from the initial outbreak point and has crossed the DRC border. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has also declared the outbreak a Continental Public Health Emergency.
This status enables the institution to deploy additional resources, including emergency response teams and surveillance operations. In its statement, Africa CDC expressed being "very concerned about the high risk of regional spread due to the intensity of cross-border population movement."
This outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, a type of Ebola virus that currently has no vaccine or specific treatment. In the past half-century, Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa.
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