PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE

Islamabad, May 17, 2026. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Sunday a "public health emergency of international concern" in response to the Ebola outbreak ravaging Ituri Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the second-highest alert level under international health regulations, below the pandemic emergency threshold introduced in 2024.

Pakistani press, through Geo News and Dawn, presents this crisis as a global warning. As of Saturday, May 17, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) recorded 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases. The WHO clarified that the actual toll could be significantly higher: the elevated positivity rate of initial samples, confirmation of cases in two countries, and the multiplication of reports "indicate a potential outbreak substantially larger than what is currently detected and reported".

The central element highlighted by Islamabad media is the particular nature of the strain in question. The Bundibugyo virus, first identified in 2007, has no approved vaccine or specific treatment. Congo's Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba warned that this strain carries "a very high fatality rate, potentially reaching 50 percent". This contrasts notably with the Zaire strain, for which two vaccines—Ervebo (Merck) and Sabdeno (Johnson & Johnson)—have been available for several years.

Cross-border transmission particularly concerns Dawn: two laboratory-confirmed cases were reported in Kampala, Uganda's capital, in travelers arriving from DR Congo. An additional case was detected in Kinshasa in a person returning from Ituri. The WHO recommends that countries sharing a land border with DR Congo activate their national emergency management mechanisms, strengthen border and internal road controls, while avoiding border closures or trade restrictions.

Medecins Sans Frontieres is preparing a "large-scale response" and describes the epidemic's rapid spread as "extremely concerning". Logistical challenges in this country of over 100 million people—four times the size of France and equipped with limited communication infrastructure—complicate the transport of medical supplies.

This represents the 17th Ebola outbreak to strike DR Congo since 1976. The previous outbreak, declared in August 2025 in the central region, caused at least 34 deaths before being declared eradicated in December. Over fifty years, the Ebola virus has killed more than 15,000 people on the African continent.