Since the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17, the Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has logged 321 confirmed cases, 116 suspected cases, 48 confirmed deaths, and only 6 recoveries in the DRC — plus 9 confirmed cases and 1 death in Uganda, according to WHO figures released Tuesday.

Bunia Airport Back Open — With Caveats

The DRC Ministry of Transport and Communications reopened Bunia Airport on Monday evening, six days after shutting it down on May 27. The ministry cited improved conditions as justification for resuming flights.

Temperature screening is now mandatory at the airport. Anyone with a fever gets turned away. Passengers must also wash hands before boarding.

Bunia-based economist Pascal Tudja had warned when the shutdown was announced that closing the airport would devastate the region. "The road is virtually impassable and many people prefer to fly," he told reporters. Cutting off supplies to an outbreak zone during a health emergency is a counterproductive move, whatever the intention.

EU and WHO Put Money on the Table

On June 2, the EU and WHO announced a joint commitment to scale up the Ebola response. The EU is allocating €15 million — €5 million of which goes directly to WHO — for emergency operations in affected areas, according to a WHO news release dated June 2, 2026.

The EU also launched a Humanitarian Air Bridge to deliver 100 tonnes of emergency supplies to eastern DRC: medicines, personal protective equipment, infection-control materials, tents, and operational gear for frontline teams. An additional €1.5 million in EU co-financing already supported deployment of 6.3 tonnes of medical supplies through WHO's Regional Emergency Hub in Dakar.

EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib called the response both "a humanitarian imperative and a strategic necessity." Europe has direct interest in stopping this before it reaches its airports.

Tedros Goes In

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spent the weekend in the DRC overseeing the response firsthand, according to Breitbart. His credibility took serious hits during COVID — the early deference to China cost the world months. Going into the epicenter of an active outbreak is either genuine accountability or a calculated image rehab, probably both. What he actually ordered on the ground will matter more than the photo op.

The Numbers Problem Is NOT Resolved

Mainstream outlets have largely moved on from the WHO case-count revision story. They shouldn't.

As of Friday, WHO had reported 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. By Tuesday, that count had been slashed to 321 confirmed and 116 suspected — a reduction of hundreds of cases. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the dropped cases "have been cleared out, and have either other diseases, or have just had fever and nothing else," according to Breitbart.

The U.S. CDC backed this up, noting the DRC Ministry of Health updated its count to "remove suspected cases that have been ruled out after investigation."

But the International Rescue Committee is raising the opposite alarm. In a statement Monday, the IRC warned the outbreak "is likely significantly larger and more advanced than official figures suggest, as response efforts struggle with delayed detection and dangerously low levels of contact tracing." The IRC added that the virus may have been spreading undetected since before March.

WHO is cutting numbers from the top while the IRC warns the real number may be even higher from the bottom. Both things can be true simultaneously — and that gap is exactly where outbreaks get out of control.

What the Political Coverage Is Missing

Back in Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent Tuesday sparring with Democrats over Trump administration cuts to global health programs, according to The Hill. Democrats are hammering the funding angle. Rubio pushed back.

Both sides are playing politics with a live outbreak. Democrats using Ebola to relitigate USAID cuts is opportunistic. But the funding cuts are a real variable in a real crisis. The IRC's warning about low contact-tracing capacity is directly relevant to what resources are on the ground.

A Wall Street Journal opinion piece this week called for applying lessons from the 2014 West Africa outbreak and argued "the need for American leadership has never been greater." In 2014, U.S. leadership — including military logistics — was decisive in turning the tide. Whether that kind of engagement happens now is a policy choice, not an inevitability.

What's At Stake

The airport reopening restores a critical supply lifeline. The EU's €15 million and 100-tonne supply drop is real, tangible help arriving now. WHO's leadership showing up in Ituri is a signal, not a solution.

The core tension remains: official numbers say the outbreak is smaller than feared. Front-line responders say it's bigger than anyone knows. Contact tracing is lagging. The virus may have had a head start of months.

An uncontained Ebola outbreak in a region with open air travel is not a "DRC problem." Nine confirmed cases have already reached Uganda, including one death. One more airport, one more connection, and this becomes a different crisis entirely.