WHO confirms five Ebola patients recovered in DRC

Sunday May 31, 2026

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief is in DRC, to monitor Ebola containment efforts. / Reuters

Five Ebola patients have recovered in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, offering a rare sign of progress as health workers battle an outbreak in Bunia, the center of the crisis.

“Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the inauguration of a new Ebola treatment centre in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

“Of course, we’re still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn’t mean that people cannot recover from Ebola,” he added.

The WHO said on Friday that one patient had recovered from the Bundibugyo virus, the strain behind the current Ebola outbreak, which does not yet have an approved treatment or vaccine. It marked the first documented recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo case in the present outbreak.

Virus quickly spreading

The health organisation said its latest official count stood at 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. In neighboring Uganda, the Health Ministry confirmed nine cases and one death on Friday.

Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, warned on Saturday that the virus is continuing to outpace the response, even as health facilities become better organized and new aid arrives. The group called for more testing, a faster rollout of aid workers and uninterrupted access for medical supplies.

Health workers are also facing rising risks amid anger from residents over strict procedures for handling victims’ bodies, which conflict with local burial traditions. Residents have mounted at least three attacks on health centres.

Tedros underscored the need to bring communities into the response during Sunday’s opening of the new treatment centre.

‘Everybody’s business’

“If you come to health facilities when you have symptoms, you can get the support and recover, so the key is to come forward as early as possible and to get the necessary support,” the WHO chief said.

“We can stop this Ebola and anyone who has it can also recover. But the rule … is this thing is everybody’s business and every citizen should be involved,” he added.

Response efforts have also been complicated by attacks in Ituri carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces, a terrorist rebel group, and by a coalition of ethnic militias.

The disease has also been reported in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the M23 rebel group controls several major cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.

‘There is hope’

“The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope,” Pierre Akilimali, Incident Manager at DR Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, said during Sunday’s inauguration.

“With the symptomatic treatment that we are currently providing, we are seeing patients recover,” Akilimali added.

“We truly have hope. The virus here is not as complicated as those we have dealt with in the past, and with the support of all our partners, we believe we will be able to bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” said Davin Ambitapio, another doctor at the treatment centre.