President Donald Trump said on Monday he was “concerned” about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), because it could have a “breakout” beyond the current infection area.
The outbreak has caused 131 fatalities to date, according to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).
“I’m concerned about everything,” Trump quipped when asked about Ebola at a White House event for the administration’s new TrumpRx prescription website.
“I think that, you know, it’s been confined right now to Africa, but it’s something that has had a breakout,” he added.
W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic.”
Tedros hinted that improved analysis could discover more infections in the remote and conflict-torn Ituri province of the DRC, and cautioned attendees of the World Health Assembly in Geneva not to overreact if the number of confirmed infections increases dramatically.
“Numbers will change as field operations are scaling up, including strengthening surveillance, contact tracing and laboratory testing,” he said.
The latest W.H.O. bulletin found the number of suspected cases has grown to over 500 and the number of deaths linked to the outbreak stands at 131. The infections are concentrated in Ituri, but have spread to other parts of the DRC, including the rebel-held city of Goma, where treatment and contract tracing will be difficult.
There have also been two infections reported across the border in Uganda, one of them fatal. Ugandan health officials said both of the Ebola patients were travelers from the DRC.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said on Tuesday that the outbreak spread undetected at first because doctors in the Ituri region were only equipped to test for Ebola Zaire, the strain most commonly associated with Congo outbreaks. The rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola was not detected until samples were sent to the DRC capital of Kinshasa, over 620 miles away from the epicenter of the outbreak.
The only other lab in the DRC with the capability to test for Ebola Bundibugyo is located in Goma, the city captured by insurgents in early 2025. It was not clear, as of Tuesday, whether the rebels are conducting Ebola tests or taking measures to contain the outbreak.
Because of these testing limitations, the W.H.O. did not become aware of the outbreak until May 5 and Ebola was not confirmed as the culprit until May 14 — three weeks after the first fatality.
“Our surveillance system didn’t work,” virologist Jean-Jaques Muyembe of the DRC’s National Institute of Bio-Medical Research told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.
Muyembe said the laboratory in the Ituri provincial capital of Bumia “should have continued searching and sent the samples to the national laboratory” when the first patients tested negative for Ebola Zaire, but “something went wrong there.”
Muyembe said the situation became “catastrophic” because DRC officials knew “there were deaths, and nothing was being said.” He pointed out that Ebola epidemics are usually “brought under control simply by applying public health measures” in a timely fashion.
“The disease is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. If you avoid this contact, you break the chain of transmission and the epidemic stops,” he said.
Other health officials have sought to blame the outbreak on the Trump administration because it withdrew from W.H.O. in January 2026 and has reduced foreign aid, but so far neither of those decisions has been linked to the failures of diagnosis and containment described by Muyembe.
The State Department said on Monday it was “coordinating a comprehensive response to the Ebola outbreak” that began within 24 hours of the first confirmed Ebola infection in the DRC.
“Within 48 hours, the Department activated a response plan and mobilized an initial $13 million in foreign assistance for immediate response efforts. This funding bolsters each country’s own response, supporting surveillance, laboratory capacity, risk communication, safe burials, entry and exit screening, and clinical case management,” the State Department noted.
“In addition, we are leveraging the Department’s historic investment in OCHA pooled funds for the DRC and Uganda to ensure the rapid deployment of additional humanitarian assistance on the ground and close coordination with the U.N. system,” the statement added.
OCHA is the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The agency manages funds pooled from various sources for humanitarian relief in the DRC and Uganda. The U.S. recently added another $1.8 billion to the OCHA’s funds, including $250 that was specifically earmarked for the DRC and Uganda.
To date, one American has been confirmed with an infection of Ebola Bundibugyo, a doctor named Peter Stafford who was working for a Pennsylvania-based Christian medical nonprofit called Serge in the eastern Congo. Stafford and his wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, are missionaries who moved to Africa in 2019.
Stafford reportedly contracted the disease while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital near the Ituri capital of Bunia. Rebekah Stafford and another missionary doctor named Patrick LaRochelle were also exposed to Ebola while treating patients and are currently under quarantine, but they have not tested positive or displayed any symptoms.
Serge issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Peter Stafford “has been safely evacuated and is receiving specialized medical treatment.”
“Our hearts are with the Stafford family and with the Congolese communities facing this outbreak,” said Serge Executive Director Matt Allison.
“Peter and Rebekah have faithfully served vulnerable communities in Nyankunde with extraordinary compassion and courage. We are deeply grateful for the medical teams, government agencies, and international partners working together to provide care, contain the outbreak, and protect lives,” he said.