WHO Africa head warns against underestimating risk of Ebola spread

It ​would be a ​mistake to underestimate ‌the risk ​posed by the Ebola outbreak, the WHO regional director ‌for Africa told Reuters on Friday, warning that just one case could spread the virus ‌beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo and ‌Uganda.


Reuters | Updated: 22-05-2026 17:18 IST | Created: 22-05-2026 17:18 IST
WHO Africa head warns against underestimating risk of Ebola spread

It ​would be a ​mistake to underestimate ‌the risk ​posed by the Ebola outbreak, the WHO regional director ‌for Africa told Reuters on Friday, warning that just one case could spread the virus ‌beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo and ‌Uganda. "It would be a big mistake to underestimate it, especially with a virus with this strain ⁠Bundibugyo, (for) ​which ⁠we don't have the vaccine," Mohamed Yakub Janabi said ⁠in an interview at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

"So ​I would really encourage everyone, let's help ⁠each other, we can bring this thing into ⁠control," ​he said. He added that the outbreak of Ebola in Congo has had relatively ⁠little global attention compared with this month's hantavirus ⁠outbreak, ⁠which affected cruise ship passengers from 23 countries including major powers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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