The WHO Just Admitted It's Losing

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an African Union online meeting Monday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda is outpacing response efforts.

Tedros said early detection failures put responders behind from the start — and they're still playing catch-up. He warned the epidemic is "likely to get worse before it gets better."

Tedros is traveling to Congo Tuesday, accompanied by WHO's top health emergencies official Chikwe Ihekweazu.

Another Clinic Attack in Mongwalu

This is the fourth clinic attack in five days.

On Sunday evening, a mob of angry residents stormed Mongwalu General Hospital — the same facility that was hit by arsonists Saturday night. According to BBC News and the Associated Press, police fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd. The mob demanded the bodies of two Ebola victims be handed over to their families for burial.

Mongwalu General Hospital medical director Dr. Richard Lokudu told the AP the hospital was placed on "general alert" and remained so as of Monday morning. One of the dead was a Catholic shepherd — described by a hospital official to AFP as a "well-known local figure."

Eyewitnesses told Breitbart News some mob members may have been armed, while other accounts attributed all gunfire to police. It is unclear whether anyone was injured.

The Numbers

As of Monday, according to WHO: over 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths across the DRC and Uganda.

Uganda added two more confirmed cases Monday, bringing its national total to seven confirmed cases, per the NY Post. Tedros warned that other countries bordering Congo are at high risk and should act immediately.

Four Attacks, One Pattern

The clinic attacks over the past five days:

• Thursday: Mob torches isolation tents at Rwampara Hospital near Bunia after the facility refused to release the body of a popular local soccer player.
• Friday night into Saturday: Isolation tent set ablaze at Mongwalu General Hospital.
• Saturday: A mob attacked the MSF (Doctors Without Borders) treatment clinic in Mongwalu, set fire to a tent. 18 people undergoing Ebola testing fled into the community and could not immediately be located, according to Breitbart News citing Dr. Lokudu.
• Sunday: Gunfire at Mongwalu General Hospital as crowd demands two bodies.

Eighteen potentially infected people remain unaccounted for in the community.

Why People Are Attacking the Clinics

Large portions of the affected population in Ituri and North Kivu provinces do not believe Ebola is real. According to Breitbart News, some attribute illness to witchcraft, others believe Ebola is a foreign biological weapon delivered through clinic injections. Traditional funeral practices involve direct physical contact with the dead — exactly how the Bundibugyo strain spreads most efficiently.

Local officials banned funerals and gatherings of over 50 people on Friday. That ban is not being enforced effectively.

The resistance to containment measures reflects a deeper trust collapse between communities and health authorities — a gap that cannot be closed quickly.

No Vaccine for This Strain

There are no approved vaccines for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

The vaccines that exist target the Zaire strain — the one most commonly associated with Ebola. The current outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo, a rarer variant first identified in Uganda in 2007, with a case fatality rate of 30 to 50 percent, according to the NY Post. Only two previous outbreaks have involved this strain — the last was in 2012 in Congo, with 57 cases and 29 deaths.

This outbreak has already surpassed 900 suspected cases.

What This Means

For Americans: the evacuated U.S. patient in Berlin is not critically ill, and his family tested negative. The immediate risk to Americans is low. But 18 unaccounted exposed individuals loose in eastern DRC communities, a spreading Uganda cluster, and a WHO chief who just admitted his organization is behind create significant concern.

Containment depends on preventing infected people from fleeing clinics and on preventing bodies from being reclaimed for traditional burial. Neither condition currently holds in the outbreak zone. The outbreak has room to run, and transmission continues to accelerate.