Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says a delay in detecting cases means responders were now ‘playing catch-up’.By AFP and APPublished On 25 May 202625 May 2026The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) says there have been 220 suspected deaths in the current Ebola outbreak and that a delay in detecting cases meant responders are now “playing catch-up”.“We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday, adding that countries bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should take immediate action.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listEarlier on Monday, Uganda reported two more Ebola cases, taking its total number of confirmed cases to seven.In a post on social media on Sunday, the WHO chief said that as surveillance efforts have been scaled up in the DRC’s Ebola response, more than 900 suspected cases have been identified so far.Ebola is a viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure, leading to death.The epicentre of the latest outbreak is in the DRC’s northeastern province of Ituri, and it has also spread into the neighbouring provinces, as far as 200km (125 miles) away from “ground zero”, as well as beyond the country’s borders, to Uganda.No vaccine or treatment exists for the new Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.Last week, the WHO declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola a public health emergency of international concern, and fear has gripped the streets of cities in the DRC and Uganda.Meanwhile, in Uganda, health authorities said they had detected two more confirmed cases of Ebola on Monday, bringing the total number of ca …
