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📖 Read full article→WHO chief visits Congo to support Ebola efforts as some workers strike over pay - AP News
Business and Economy8/5/20261 min read
The head of the World Health Organization has arrived in Congo as the Ebola outbreak spreads at an alarming rate. Aid workers say the outbreak is the fastest-growing in history, with 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 deaths as of Monday. Health workers in the o…
✨ Key Highlights
- WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned during an August 5, 2026 visit to Kinshasa that eastern Congo's Ebola outbreak is spreading faster than the response can contain it, with new cases doubling in some hot spots.
- The outbreak, declared in mid-May, had reached 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 deaths as of the latest Ministry of Health data, making it the world's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak.
- The trip marked Tedros's second visit to the country since the outbreak began, and he urged partners to urgently and massively scale up efforts across all areas of the response.
- Some overworked frontline health workers in Ituri province, the epicenter, have gone on strike over unpaid wages, further disrupting healthcare access in a remote region already strained by rebel conflict.
- Workers said they began receiving payment in the past week for work done since the outbreak started but are still pushing for improved wages, according to families in the area.
- The affected region lies in Congo's east near the borders of South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda, an area described as among the country's most remote and vulnerable.
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) The head of the World Health Organization arrived in Congo was in Congo on Wednesday as aid workers said the worlds fastest-growing Ebola outbreak is spreading at an alarming rat