WHO puts Ebola outbreak death rate at ‘huge’ 30-50% as chief arrives in DRC

A deacon helps a parishioner wash his hands to limit the spread of Ebola in Bunia. Photograph: Glody Murhabazi/AFP/Getty View image in fullscreen A deacon helps a parishioner wash his hands to limit the spread of Ebola in Bunia. Photograph: Glody Murhabazi/AFP/Getty WHO puts Ebola outbreak death rate at ‘huge’ 30-50% as chief arrives in DRC Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls for ceasefire among armed groups to help avoid deaths from preventable disease The death rate of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is between 30% and 50%, the World Health Organization has said, as its head arrived in the country to support efforts to contain the disease. Anaïs Legand, from the WHO’s high threat pathogens team, said the revised death rate estimate is based on confirmed cases. “It’s huge. It means that up to five out of 10 people are likely to die,” Legand told reporters in Geneva. She also said that a patient had recovered from Ebola and was discharged from a health centre in the DRC on 27 May after two negative tests, the first recovery to have been confirmed in the outbreak. The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on 15 May , among more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organisation’s director general, arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday and was due to travel to the centre of the outbreak , in the north-east Ituri province, on Friday, but the trip has been pushed back by a day. ‘Among the things he feared most was death’: the doctors and nurses dying on the Ebola frontline Read more “That thing can be stopped,” Tedros told reporters, adding that the WHO did not support travel bans because they “don’t help much”. “Together, we will overcome this outbreak,” he said in a separate message to Congolese citizens, promising to do “everything in my power to help”. The true scale of the outbreak may be significantly larger, the WHO said, because the virus is believed to have circulated undetected for some time. The outbreak is the 17th recorded Ebola epidemic in the vast central African country, which has a population of more than 100 million. The disease was first identified there in 1976 and its death rate has averaged 50% across all outbreaks, according to the WHO . View image in fullscreen Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaking to reporters in Kinshasa. Photograph: Arsene Mpiana/Reuters Complicating relief efforts, the outbreak is centred on a mineral-rich region fought over by armed groups . “Conflict and displacement make everything harder,” Tedros said. “I am making a direct appeal to all warring parties in this region: please declare a ceasefire. No cause, no conflict, no grievance is worth condemning innocent people to death from a preventable disease.” More than 245,000 people have fled eastern DRC to neighbouring countries since January 2025, according to the UN refugee agency . Armed groups operating in the area include the Rwand