health

Ebola risk now at highest level in DR Congo, says WHO

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • The WHO upgraded its risk assessment level from high to very high for the DR Congo, while keeping the regional risk level at high and the global risk level at low.
  • The risk from the deadly Ebola outbreak has been raised to the highest level for the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said Friday, as the toll continued to rise.
  • The WHO upgraded its risk assessment level from high to very high for the DR Congo, while keeping the regional risk level at high and the global risk level at low.
The risk from the deadly Ebola outbreak has been raised to the highest level for the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said Friday, as the toll continued to rise.
There are now 82 confirmed cases and seven confirmed deaths in the DR Congo, with almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, the WHO said.
The outbreak, which experts suspect was circulating under the radar for some time, was caused by the less common Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
The WHO is prioritising certain existing treatments to see how effective they might be in combating the strain.

Situation 'deeply worrisome'

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation was "especially challenging" as health workers scramble to catch up with the spread of the virus and track down contacts of everyone thought to be infected, in highly insecure areas.
"We know the epidemic in DRC is much larger" than the confirmed cases, he told journalists at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
The situation in neighbouring Uganda was "stable", with two cases confirmed in people who travelled from DRC and one death, with "intense contact tracing" seemingly having prevented further spread.
While a US national who was working in the DRC has tested positive and been transferred to Germany for care, Tedros said another US national deemed to be a high-risk contact had been transferred to the Czech Republic.
Ebola is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.
The WHO upgraded its risk assessment level from high to very high for the DR Congo, while keeping the regional risk level at high and the global risk level at low.
The assessment determines the potential impact of a public health threat and the necessary response measures, with WHO advice set to follow.
The WHO's emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud said the assessment looks at the potential risk for human health; the risk of an event spreading; and the capacity available.
"The potential of this virus spreading rapidly is very high, and that changed the whole dynamic," he said.

Catch-up phase

Speaking from the field, Anne Ancia, the WHO's representative in the DRC, said the case numbers would keep rising until all the response operations could be put in place.
The virus has been "rampant and silently disseminating for a few weeks already", and "we are sprinting behind" playing catch-up, with the spread "not yet under control", she explained.
When no treatments or vaccines are available, finding contacts and isolating them for 21 days "is the only way that we will be able to disrupt the transmission".
More than 1,400 contacts were being traced in northeastern Ituri province, the outbreak's epicentre, she added.
WHO's Africa regional director Mohamed Yakub Janabi said Ebola had a so-called silent early phase, when symptoms resemble malaria or typhoid, meaning transmission can remain undetected.
Ancia said rising case numbers at this stage was a "good sign" because it showed that surveillance and active discovery of cases was working.
Janabi added that "it often reflects that the response is intensifying, uncovering the true scale of the outbreak".

Treatment trials planned

There have only been two previous outbreaks of Bundibugyo, in Uganda in 2007 and DRC in 2012.
With no approved treatments or vaccines for Bundibugyo, WHO chief scientist Sylvie Briand said the UN agency was prioritising all existing tools that might be useful in combating the outbreak.
The WHO research and development branch's technical advisory group on treatments has prioritised two monoclonal antibodies for clinical trials: Regeneron 3479 and Mapp Biopharmaceutical's MBP134.
It also recommended evaluating the oral antiviral obeldesivir in clinical trials as post-exposure prophylaxis for people who are high-risk contacts.
Briand said it looked "promising" as something that might be able to prevent infected contacts from going on to develop disease from that infection.

No swift vaccine options

As for vaccines, the Ervebo vaccine works against the Zaire strain of Ebola but there is "very little evidence of cross-protection for Bundibugyo", said Briand.
While a Bundibugyo-specific equivalent has been worked on, there are no doses currently available for clinical trials, and if prioritised, it could take six to nine months to develop.
And while a candidate vaccine targeting Bundibugyo and leveraging the ChAdOx platform is in production, there is not yet any data from animal testing to support going forward for clinical trials on humans, said Briand.
rjm/apo/jj

health

Riot hits DR Congo hospital as Ebola response angers victims' families

  • Infamous for their indiscipline, Congolese security forces have been accused in past Ebola outbreaks of fanning distrust towards medics. 
  • Rioters have burnt down hospital tents in a hotspot of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola epidemic, as many Congolese wrestle with fear, anger and confusion over the latest deadly outbreak.
  • Infamous for their indiscipline, Congolese security forces have been accused in past Ebola outbreaks of fanning distrust towards medics. 
Rioters have burnt down hospital tents in a hotspot of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola epidemic, as many Congolese wrestle with fear, anger and confusion over the latest deadly outbreak.
The hastily arranged burials of the victims suspected to have been killed by the viral haemorrhagic fever have been met with suspicion in a conflict-ridden part of the country already distrustful of the state.
With tensions running high, the military has been deployed to provide security for funerals.
Tents used to isolate Ebola patients at Rwampara hospital, in the northeastern Ituri province at the outbreak's epicentre, were torched in the riot on Thursday, which ended swiftly after the army stepped in. Only the tents' charred husks remain.
"It all kicked off when a 24-year-old man, the son of a soldier, died at the hospital," an official at the medical institution said. 
"The family wanted us to hand over his body so that they can bury him, but given the circumstances, that's impossible," the official added.   
Besides being extremely deadly, Ebola is transmitted through prolonged physical contact and bodily fluids. 
There is no vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the vast central African country, which the World Health Organization believes has already killed more than 177 people. 
So attempts to tackle the latest spread have been forced to rely mainly on precautions and rapid contact tracing. 
But in rural parts of the DRC, "loved ones are throwing themselves at the bodies, touching the corpses and the clothes of the deceased, while organising mourning rituals bringing together loads of people," said Jean Marie Ezadri, a civil society leader in Ituri. 
"Unfortunately, this is going on even during this epidemic, which explains the many instances of contamination."

'Imaginary disease'

After the riot at Rwampara hospital, families nervously awaited the burials of three patients suspected to have died of the virus -- though some questioned its existence.
"My brother is not dead from Ebola, it's an imaginary disease," said 22-year-old Jeremie Arwampara.
"Why are they refusing to give us the bodies? He's my big brother, I cannot be afraid of him," yelled Ezekiel Shambuyi. 
The unruly rabble dispersed after the soldiers on guard around the hospital fired warning shots. A nurse was wounded by stones thrown.
Within the shelter of the hospital's walls, healthcare workers prepared for the burials, slipping into full protective gear. 
Finally, they emerged carrying three black-and-white caskets, placed on a three-wheeled cart. 
In one lay the father of Musa Amuri, who came to bid his dad a rushed goodbye.
"They're going to bury our father without us seeing him, it breaks my heart," the young man said.
The funeral procession set off to Rwampara cemetery, escorted by three jeeps full of soldiers and police.
Infamous for their indiscipline, Congolese security forces have been accused in past Ebola outbreaks of fanning distrust towards medics. 
Even some of the Rwampara rioters were themselves soldiers, close to one of the victims, who threatened the healthcare workers, according to a hospital source.

 Funeral hymn

Dusk fell over Rwampara's surrounding green hills as the burial began at the cemetery away from the town. 
After being sprayed with disinfectant, the coffins were quickly lowered into the earth by faceless men clad in full hazmat suits.
Loved ones who came to witness the ceremony burst into tears. One struck up a dirge in a faint voice, while a pastor recited several verses from the Bible. 
Among the funeral crowd, Maman Leonie refused to believe that her brother had been killed by Ebola. 
"He was just sick, let the government come to our aid!" she pleaded.
State services in rural areas of Ituri have been largely absent for decades.
And its inhabitants, already prey to the repeated massacres committed by the restive province's rash of armed groups, are increasingly blaming the Congolese government for the slow response to the outbreak.
Over the past few days in the town of Mongbwalu, "the population has understood the scale of the situation and now knows that bodies must not be touched," a hospital official said. 
But they fretted about the fact that "isolation and triage areas have still not been set up".
"Suspected cases are mixed in with other patients in the hospital wards, with a high risk of infection."
str-clt/sbk/rh

therapy

'Filter of fantasy': Japan trials anime therapy to treat depression

BY ALICE PHILIPSON

  • "The use of manga and anime supported me so much... they were very important emotional support kind of tools," Panto told AFP. "Being raised in Italy, in Sicily, there were very strong stereotypes around gender or self-expression.
  • As a teenager struggling to fit into life in rural Sicily, psychiatrist Francesco Panto found refuge in anime, where he discovered characters that resembled the kind of man he wanted to be.
  • "The use of manga and anime supported me so much... they were very important emotional support kind of tools," Panto told AFP. "Being raised in Italy, in Sicily, there were very strong stereotypes around gender or self-expression.
As a teenager struggling to fit into life in rural Sicily, psychiatrist Francesco Panto found refuge in anime, where he discovered characters that resembled the kind of man he wanted to be.
Now living in Japan, Panto thinks anime can benefit others and is trialling whether it could be used as a method of therapy, particularly for people who would otherwise struggle to ask for help.
"The use of manga and anime supported me so much... they were very important emotional support kind of tools," Panto told AFP.
"Being raised in Italy, in Sicily, there were very strong stereotypes around gender or self-expression. But when I was 12 or 13 years old I started to play this game called 'Final Fantasy'... and the male protagonists resonated with me.
"They were so masculine and cool, but in their own way." 
Panto's six-month pilot study into "character-based counselling" at Yokohama City University ended in March.
As part of the trial, he and his team recruited 20 people aged 18-29 who had symptoms of depression and gave them online counselling delivered by a psychologist who appeared on the screen as an anime avatar with a digitally altered voice.
He believes that the "filter of fantasy" can help put people at ease and aid recognition of their problems -- and he's hoping that the trial results will confirm this theory.
From a steady and trustworthy "maternal energy" figure who brandishes an assault rifle, to an emotionally perceptive "prince-like" male who wears a cape, six different characters were created specifically for the study.
Each is based on a particular archetype in Japanese manga, with trial participants given freedom to choose among them.
"I tried to infuse each character with a specific mental struggle. One character is called Kuroto Nagi. She's affected by bipolar personality traits," Panto said.
Others struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety disorders, or experience problems related to alcohol use.
But the idea is for the avatars to be "fun", Panto explained, and although the psychologist tells the story of their character at the start of the session, they were instructed not to make mental health issues too obvious.
One 24-year-old trial participant explained how they had been drawn to the study by a description of one of the characters, who was said to be "searching for true strength".
That "made me feel like it might help me get closer to the answer to my own problems," said the participant, an anime fan and game developer who could not be identified by name under the rules of the trial.

'Will to live'

The phase-one trial -- which tracked participants' heart rates and sleep -- is primarily to test whether anime therapy is feasible and if this kind of treatment can reduce symptoms of depression.
Panto is also considering whether the therapy could be delivered using artificial intelligence, without the medium of a real psychologist.
The research project is one of many trying to find solutions to mental health challenges in Japan including "ikizurasa", a term for people who find it "difficult to live, difficult to survive in society", said Mio Ishii, an assistant professor helping lead the project.
"There are many young people who cannot go to school or continue working. So, our scope is to give them... new choices to recover from their difficulties," she said, adding that there was still huge stigma in Japan attached to seeking help.
As of 2022, only six percent of people in Japan had used psychological counselling for mental health problems, according to data cited on the World Economic Forum website. The rate was much higher in Europe and the United States.
Jesus Maya, who specialises in family therapy at the University of Seville and is not involved in the trial, said the use of anime during sessions can be "really useful".
"It can facilitate the expression of emotions... (and) identification and communication between the patient and the therapist," he said.
Under the rules of the study, the 24-year-old trial participant -- whose current favourite anime series include "The End of Evangelion" and "Girls Band Cry" -- could not comment on the trial itself.
But they said anime had given them the "will to live, seeing characters who are full of life as they work hard toward their dreams".
Ishii hopes the therapy could help people of all ages across the world.
"Because usually people have stigmas and psychological barriers to ask for help about their mental health," she said. "But anime or technology can decrease them."
aph/sjc/mjw

health

Deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to M23-held South Kivu

  • Tests "confirm a new positive case" in Kabare territory in South Kivu, M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.
  • An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to eastern South Kivu province in an area under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, the group's spokesman said Thursday, heightening fears of the deadly disease's growing reach.
  • Tests "confirm a new positive case" in Kabare territory in South Kivu, M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to eastern South Kivu province in an area under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, the group's spokesman said Thursday, heightening fears of the deadly disease's growing reach.
Efforts to get a grip on the latest outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever, which the World Health Organization has declared an international emergency, have been hampered by the DRC's long-running conflicts, including between the Congolese army and the M23.
Having seized swathes of land in the mineral-rich east with Rwanda's help, the M23 has installed a parallel administration in areas under its control.
But the armed group has never had to manage the response to a serious epidemic of a disease like Ebola, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century.
The virus is suspected to have claimed 160 lives out of nearly 671 probable cases, according to figures published by the National Institute for Public Health (INSP) on Thursday.
There are 64 confirmed Ebola cases and six confirmed deaths, INSP said.
Tests "confirm a new positive case" in Kabare territory in South Kivu, M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.
Parts of South Kivu, including the provincial capital Bukavu, fell to the M23 in February 2025 after fierce clashes.
The case involved a "person coming from Kisangani", a major city in the eastern Tshopo province, where no Ebola infections from the current outbreak have so far been recorded.
Congolese authorities, in a statement on Thursday, reported two cases identified in South Kivu province -- one suspected case and one confirmed.

Riot at hospital

The outbreak's epicentre is in northeastern Ituri province, with many cases in hard-to-access areas plagued by the Congolese east's litany of armed groups and where measures to respond to the crisis have been slow to get off the ground.
"We have no sanitary facilities at all, not even a handwashing station, for 16,000 displaced people," said Desire Grodya, an official at a site for displaced people in Kigonze, on the outskirts of Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital.
"We're really crammed in here; it's total overcrowding... If the outbreak starts on the site, it will be catastrophic," he warned.
On Thursday, a brief riot erupted at the hospital in Rwampara, one of the outbreak's focal points located about 12 kilometres (seven miles) from Bunia.
Young people who "wanted to retrieve the body" of a deceased patient "entered the hospital and burned down the two isolation tents", a hospital official told AFP.
A healthcare worker was also injured by stone-throwing before law enforcement intervened, the official said.
The isolation tents had only just been put up at the hospital.
Cases have also been recorded in North Kivu province and neighbouring Uganda, where one person has died.

Split by front lines

Both North and South Kivu are split in two by the front lines dividing the Congolese army from the M23 armed group and its Rwandan allies.
No vaccine or clinical treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus responsible for the current epidemic.
"Every passenger who arrives here, whether at the airport entry point or elsewhere, is subject to a temperature check," said Aime Prospere, head of border hygiene at Bunia airport, in a statement.
Tons of equipment have been delivered at the airport by the WHO and NGOs since Monday.
In the city "we're not allowed to carry two people on the same motorcycle", Paulin Kibondo, a motorcycle taxi driver, said.
While the WHO believes the risk from the Ebola outbreak is high both in the DRC and the wider central African region, it considers the risk of a worldwide pandemic to be "low". 
The United States is diverting arrivals who recently travelled to Ebola-hit countries to a single Washington area airport for screening.
Uganda has suspended all public transport to DRC while India is rescheduling next month's summit on the conservation of big cat species to ensure the participation of African nations. 
str-clt/sbk-kjm/ach/phz 

health

'People thought it was witchcraft': DR Congo's Ebola outbreak

  • "Unfortunately, the alert spread slowly within the community," as people believed they were suffering from a "mystical illness", Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said Tuesday.
  • The Ebola virus was circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo for several weeks before the outbreak was identified and declared, during which time affected communities believed it to be a "mystical illness".
  • "Unfortunately, the alert spread slowly within the community," as people believed they were suffering from a "mystical illness", Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said Tuesday.
The Ebola virus was circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo for several weeks before the outbreak was identified and declared, during which time affected communities believed it to be a "mystical illness".
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak -- the 17th in the huge, impoverished country of more than 100 million people -- an international health emergency on Sunday.
But, according to witnesses, the first suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever appeared from mid-April in the mining locality of Mongbwalu, in gold-rich Ituri province.
Insecurity is rife and access is difficult in the northeastern region, where different armed groups have roamed for years and massacres are regularly reported.
"Unfortunately, the alert spread slowly within the community," as people believed they were suffering from a "mystical illness", Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said Tuesday.
After a body was repatriated to Mongbwalu from Bunia, the Ituri provincial capital, "members of the family decided to change coffins", and then the first one "was burned by young people", John Vatsosi, a resident of Mongbwalu, told AFP.
But, he said, some local traditional chiefs wanted "to hold ceremonies before incinerating the coffin".
"After that, there were repeated deaths, sometimes between three and five people a day," he said. 
"People then began to speculate, saying that the traditional leaders had cast a curse that was causing these deaths," he added.

'Witchcraft'

"An old dad was suspected of being a sorcerer who caused people's deaths," Timothee Bedidjo, who also lives in Mongbwalu, said.
"Someone would be taken to hospital and a few minutes later the person would die, but the medical staff couldn't identify any kind of illness. Sometimes they spoke of a fever, sometimes of an as-yet unidentified outbreak," he added.
Some patients "decided to seek treatment from traditional healers, while others turned to servants of God for prayers," Vatsosi said.
In the days that followed, the virus spread in neighbouring areas, in a mining and commercial region where people are constantly on the move.
"In the beginning, there was chaos. There were cases of death and people thought it was witchcraft," said a hospital official in Rwampara, a locality near Bunia that quickly became one of the epicentres of the new Ebola outbreak.
"They brought us patients and we handled them as ordinary hospital admissions. There were no concrete signs that would allow us to associate the illness with Ebola," he said.
Health infrastructure in the DRC is largely lacking in human and financial resources.
It is often reliant on international organisations, whose funding to provide aid has been slashed recently particularly by the United States since President Donald Trump's return to the White House.
"We face technical limitations when it comes to detecting outbreaks such as Ebola. Some healthcare workers were even infected because they lacked appropriate protective equipment," the hospital official said.
He said the patients who make it to the hospital died within 24 hours.
But in isolated areas, infected people "die at home and their bodies are handled by their family members", said Isaac Nyakulinda, a civil society official in Rwampara health area.
"We, the population, did not really know if it was an epidemic," he said.
"We regret that the government intervened late," he added emotionally.

Too few tests

In Bunia, tests were not available to identify the Bundibugyo strain, which is responsible for the new outbreak.
Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters on Tuesday that testing equipment had been ready for the Zaire strain of the virus, which has been behind previous big Ebola outbreaks in the DRC.
"Samples had to leave the Bunia laboratory and be sent to the central laboratory" in the capital Kinshasa, delaying identification of the virus, the minister said.
The WHO has said it was alerted to the emergence of a highly lethal disease on May 5.
"This false rumour about the fetishist nature of the illness gradually began to disappear," Vatsosi said.
However at that point, 246 suspected cases including 65 deaths had already been recorded.
The outbreak's origins have yet to be clearly established.
Bats are known to be carriers of the Ebola virus and are sometimes eaten by local residents in the DRC.
Over the years "Congolese people have been venturing ever deeper into the forests and coming into contact with the virus reservoir," Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) and co-discoverer of Ebola in 1976, told reporters this week.
"Another factor is bush meat," he said, adding it was a main protein source for people living in rural areas.
clt/kjm/rh

conflict

Some Ukrainian refugees head home - for dental work

BY ROMAIN COLAS

  • Some 5.7 million Ukrainian refugees are living outside the country -- from a pre-war population of around 40 million.
  • Four years of brutal Russian attacks have forced millions of Ukrainians to seek safety abroad. 
  • Some 5.7 million Ukrainian refugees are living outside the country -- from a pre-war population of around 40 million.
Four years of brutal Russian attacks have forced millions of Ukrainians to seek safety abroad. 
But with the war showing no signs of stopping, significant numbers of refugees have started trickling back home, if only temporarily, for one reason: to see their dentist.
Those displaced by an onslaught of Russian tanks, drones and missiles have been navigating long journeys home by car, bus or rail for orthodontic work they prefer -- or can only get -- inside Ukraine.
"Here in Ukraine, we really appreciate the quality of the medical services, as well as the personalised approach to our daughter," said Yana Sidko, who left for France in 2022.
She now makes the arduous pilgrimage back to the Ukrainian capital with her 13-year-old daughter for treatment.
The country was a dental tourism destination before Russia invaded, with Europeans seeking lower-cost procedures and a broader range of treatment.
But now the vast majority of those coming from abroad are Ukrainians who fled the war, professionals in the industry told AFP.
In a paediatric clinic in Kyiv, dentist Oleg Kovnatskyi told AFP that around 20 percent of his patients -- 10 to 20 people a month -- come from abroad.
Around 90 percent, the 39-year-old said, are Ukrainians.
"Whereas previously there were more foreigners ... today it's our own citizens that left the country following the full-scale invasion, but are now returning," he said.
Some 5.7 million Ukrainian refugees are living outside the country -- from a pre-war population of around 40 million.

The 'emotional dimension'

So common is the trend, there is a running joke that dentists could be one of the main catalysts for many to move back permanently -- something that would help alleviate a long-running demographic crisis and a deepening labour shortage.
Maryna Kovbasniuk, director of dental care at the private health network, Dobrobut, did not provide overall figures, but told AFP that the numbers of Ukrainians returning for care "continues to grow."
Refugees return because dentists are cheaper at home and offer some treatment unavailable everywhere -- like the use of sedatives for children -- Kovnatskyi said.
The lack of a language barrier and the fact that children prefer to see the same dentist on repeat visits are also important factors.
"The emotional dimension is essential, as are body language and empathy, and every language has its own nuances," Kovnatskyi said.
"This complexity, made up of linguistic and cultural differences, can be an obstacle that is difficult to overcome," he added. 
Patients often come from abroad for procedures that can take several days like X-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds.
Sidko and her 13-year-old daughter, Daryna, travel from France to see Kovnatskyi -- their dentist for the past decade.
He has a personal touch and takes Daryna's sensitivity into consideration, she said.
Sidko also schedules her own check-ups on the trips back home.
"It reduces my stress and anxiety, and it's easier to sort things out here, even though the journey is very long and difficult," the 40-year-old told AFP.
She is thinking about returning for good, but only when Russia's daily drone and missile attacks ebb and the situation in Ukraine is better for her daughter.
Kovnatskyi began the visit by replacing one of Daryna's old fillings. 
"It won't take very long, we just need to remove the old one and put in a new one," he explained.
Kovnatskyi played upbeat music and reassured Daryna as he got to work. 
When the procedure was over, Daryna chose a toy to take home from the clinic.
"People often feel afraid when they don't know what's going on," the teenager told AFP.
"When he explains what's happening, it reduces the fear and you feel in control."
For his part, Kovnatskyi said he would be happy if refugees trickling back home for dental work meant that he and his colleagues had a hand in "bringing Ukraine back to life".
rco-jbr/pdw

stocks

Musk's empire as SpaceX heads to Wall Street liftoff

  • Its most prominent project -- a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center -- has drawn mixed reviews, with critics noting it amounts to a narrow underground road for Tesla cars rather than the revolutionary transit system Musk once envisioned. arp/mlm
  • Elon Musk defines himself as an engineer trying to save humanity, while his critics call him a far-right showman who overpromises and underdelivers.
  • Its most prominent project -- a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center -- has drawn mixed reviews, with critics noting it amounts to a narrow underground road for Tesla cars rather than the revolutionary transit system Musk once envisioned. arp/mlm
Elon Musk defines himself as an engineer trying to save humanity, while his critics call him a far-right showman who overpromises and underdelivers.
Either way, he is the world's richest person and the founder of some of the most high-profile companies on the planet.
Here is a look at his business empire as his space and AI company SpaceX prepares to sell shares to the public for the first time.

SpaceX, Starlink, xAI

SpaceX builds rockets and spacecraft, and has become the dominant force in commercial space launches -- regularly sending astronauts to the International Space Station and satellites into orbit.
Its Starlink division beams high-speed internet from space to users around the world.
Starlink now boasts more than nine million subscribers -- a real commercial success, although critics have raised concerns about Musk's willingness to restrict access for political reasons, including during the war in Ukraine.
SpaceX also absorbed Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI -- which makes the Grok chatbot -- in an all-stock deal in February 2026, creating what was described as the largest corporate merger in history, with the combined entity valued at approximately $1.25 trillion.
A Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the company generated $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025 and posted an operating loss of $2.6 billion as it poured money into next-generation rocket development and AI.

Tesla

Tesla popularized electric vehicles and remains one of the world's most recognized car brands.
It also develops solar panels and home battery storage systems, and is working on self-driving technology and humanoid robots -- projects Musk has repeatedly promised are just around the corner, though timelines have often slipped by years.
One of Tesla's most hyped products, the stainless-steel Cybertruck, has proven to be a commercial disappointment and the broader company has also hit turbulence.
Last year brought a sales slump that stemmed from increased competition globally and a consumer backlash against Musk's political activities, including his financial support for President Donald Trump and his endorsement of Germany's far-right AfD party.
Tesla is publicly traded and its stock is down around 20 percent in the past year.
Musk ownership of Tesla peaked at around 20 percent of the company in 2021 before he sold shares to buy Twitter, but he still firmly controls the company.

X (formerly Twitter)

X -- the platform formerly known as Twitter -- is a social media site where users post short messages and videos, share news and debate politics.
Musk acquired it in October 2022 for roughly $44 billion, rebranded it as X, cut a large portion of its staff, and loosened content moderation policies. 
Advertisers fled in response, and the experiment is widely viewed as a failure that has turned the site into an echo chamber for Musk's fans and his increasingly right-wing views. 
After seeing its valuation decimated, the platform is now estimated to be worth roughly what Musk originally paid for it, based on the value given to shareholders when he folded the company into xAI -- laying the groundwork for the SpaceX IPO.

Neuralink

Neurotechnology company Neuralink is developing tiny computer chips that can be implanted in the human brain, with the stated goal of helping people with paralysis or neurological conditions communicate using only their thoughts.
In trials, patients have demonstrated thought-controlled cursor navigation and robotic arm manipulation -- genuine breakthroughs, although ethicists and regulators have raised questions about privacy and long-term safety. 

The Boring Company

Frustrated by traffic, Musk founded The Boring Company in 2016, initially as a SpaceX subsidiary, with grand promises of transforming urban transportation through a network of underground tunnels.
The reality has been more modest. Its most prominent project -- a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center -- has drawn mixed reviews, with critics noting it amounts to a narrow underground road for Tesla cars rather than the revolutionary transit system Musk once envisioned.
arp/mlm

Ebola

In Belgium, health expert readies to fly to DR Congo Ebola zone

  • The infectious disease specialist believes the outbreak could worsen in the DRC, though in line with the World Health Organization, he does not currently see a risk of a global pandemic.
  • Days before flying out to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help tackle a raging Ebola outbreak, Belgian infectious disease specialist Laurens Liesenborghs has one certainty: He is "preparing for a marathon and not for a sprint."
  • The infectious disease specialist believes the outbreak could worsen in the DRC, though in line with the World Health Organization, he does not currently see a risk of a global pandemic.
Days before flying out to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help tackle a raging Ebola outbreak, Belgian infectious disease specialist Laurens Liesenborghs has one certainty: He is "preparing for a marathon and not for a sprint."
Working with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, the specialist is assembling equipment, including testing kits, and plans to conduct a clinical study on site to trial new treatments.
"We prepare first of all mentally," Liesenborghs told AFP as he readied to leave at the weekend for Kinshasa and then Bunia, in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, where the outbreak is spreading.
"It's not scary, but you need to know what you're doing," said Liesenborghs, who travels regularly to the country and describes two types of "insecurity" in the present situation.
You need to "know where it's safe to go and where it's not safe to go", he said, given the unrest in eastern DRC, where armed groups regularly carry out massacres.
And then "obviously, the virus itself poses a lot of danger or risk", with the DRC in this case facing a relatively uncommon strain of Ebola known as Bundibugyo.
"Vaccines are not yet approved, drugs are not yet approved, and also the diagnostic tests are much more difficult," Liesenborghs said.
"So we need to reinvent the wheel here a little bit for this atypical variant," he said. "And that, on top of the geographical insecurity, makes this response very, very, very challenging."
The infectious disease specialist believes the outbreak could worsen in the DRC, though in line with the World Health Organization, he does not currently see a risk of a global pandemic.

'Conspiracy theories and distrust'

On the ground, Liesenborghs will, like his colleagues, wear a full protective suit, two pairs of gloves, a hood, protective goggles and a mask.
"There's a very specific procedure how to dress, but especially undress," he explained. "And during every step, you're sprayed with chlorine to kill every potential virus that is still left on the personal protective equipment."
Under tropical temperatures, "five minutes within the suit and you're soaking wet," he said.
"You can imagine staying in this suit for an hour, you're completely drained and dehydrated -- so that's very challenging."
"In these conditions, you then need to work with patients who are very ill, who are very afraid," he said.
One of the major challenges is building a relationship of trust with local communities where the team is working.
"Epidemics can really thrive where you have conflict and instability," Liesenborghs said.
"Because people often think, or they don't know, is this response, is this Ebola treatment unit, is it associated with the government? Is it associated with rebels? So they inherently don't trust this.
"In addition to this, an Ebola treatment centre is a very scary place," he said. "People approach you in these spacesuits. It looks really creepy. And then you see people that come in, more than half of them don't come out alive.
"Add this to conflict, and of course you will have conspiracy theories and distrust."
mbr-adc/ec/jhb

health

DR Congo Ebola risk high regionally, low worldwide: WHO

BY NINA LARSON

  • Following a meeting of the WHO's emergency committee, he said the agency "assesses the risk of the epidemic as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level".
  • The risk from a deadly Ebola outbreak is high in central Africa but remains low globally, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that the virus had likely been spreading for months.
  • Following a meeting of the WHO's emergency committee, he said the agency "assesses the risk of the epidemic as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level".
The risk from a deadly Ebola outbreak is high in central Africa but remains low globally, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that the virus had likely been spreading for months.
The outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever was declared in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last Friday. 
Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century, and the UN health agency has declared the latest surge an international health emergency.
The 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC is already suspected of having caused 139 deaths from around 600 probable cases.
"We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
"Given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago," said Anais Legand, WHO technical officer on viral haemorrhagic fevers.
At a hospital near conflict-torn Ituri's main city, Bunia, equipment to isolate suspected cases of Ebola and full protective gear for nurses has only just begun arriving.
"We dig graves and bury dead people without gloves or any protection," said Salama Bamunoba, a youth organisation representative.
On Sunday, Tedros declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern -- the second-highest level of alarm under the legally-binding International Health Regulations (IHR).
But he said Wednesday it had been determined that the situation was "not a pandemic emergency".
Following a meeting of the WHO's emergency committee, he said the agency "assesses the risk of the epidemic as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level".
The European Commission in Brussels insisted that the risk of infection in the EU was "very low" and that "there is no indication" that Europeans should take specific measures.

No vaccines

Ebola is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.
The WHO has highlighted the complexity of detecting and responding to the current outbreak, which has been spreading in hard-to-reach areas of the DRC's conflict-torn Ituri province.
Complicating things further, the rare Bundibugyo strain behind the outbreak does not show up on tests for the more common Zaire strain of Ebola.
And with no vaccines or specific treatment available for Bundibugyo, measures to curb its spread are limited.
The WHO has said it is examining whether any candidate vaccines or treatments could be used to rein in the outbreak.
WHO officer Legand stressed though that the organisation's priority was to "cut the transmission chain" through contact-tracing, isolation and care for all suspected and confirmed cases.

Travel restrictions

With the recent cases largely concentrated in remote areas, few samples have been laboratory-tested and figures are based mostly on suspected cases.
So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in the DRC's eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, while two cases have been confirmed in the Ugandan capital Kampala, including one death.
A US doctor who contracted Ebola in the DRC has been admitted to a hospital in Germany that will also treat his family, health officials told AFP Wednesday.
WHO's emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud stressed that "all contacts, all cases should not travel".
Washington said Tuesday it was screening air passengers from outbreak-hit areas and temporarily suspending visa services, although a State Department official said the DRC football team would be allowed to travel to the United States for the World Cup.
Bahrain announced a 30-day ban on visitors from the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda.

'Lack of understanding'

WHO experts said investigations were under way into the origins of the current outbreak.
The first identified case was a nurse, who went to a health centre on April 24 in the city of Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.
But the epicentre of the outbreak is about 90 kilometres (56 miles) away, in Mongbwalu, which suggests the outbreak originated there and that the cases then spread.
The WHO has said it was alerted to the emergence of a highly lethal disease on May 5, with the first positive Ebola test on May 15.
Tedros has hit back at criticism over the response time from the United States, which under President Donald Trump has announced its withdrawal from the WHO.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged that the WHO "was a little late to identify this thing".
Asked about the US criticism, Tedros said that could stem "from lack of understanding" of how international health regulations work, "and the responsibilities of WHO".
"We don't replace the countries' work, we only support them."
bur-nl/rjm/rh/rlp

measles

Bangladesh measles deaths near 500 but vaccines offer hope

  • The South Asian nation of 170 million people has been battling its worst measles outbreak since March 15, with more than 50,000 confirmed and suspected cases.
  • Bangladesh has rolled out a mass vaccination campaign to combat its deadliest measles outbreak in decades that has killed nearly 500 children in just two months, the United Nations children's agency said Wednesday.
  • The South Asian nation of 170 million people has been battling its worst measles outbreak since March 15, with more than 50,000 confirmed and suspected cases.
Bangladesh has rolled out a mass vaccination campaign to combat its deadliest measles outbreak in decades that has killed nearly 500 children in just two months, the United Nations children's agency said Wednesday.
Deaths are still rising, with six children dying in the past 24 hours alone, taking the toll from the preventable disaster to 481, according to health ministry figures.
But a nationwide immunisation drive has now reached 18 million children, UNICEF country chief Rana Flowers told reporters.
"The good news is 18 million children have been reached with measles vaccination," Flowers said.
Zahid Raihan, spokesman for the health department, said there were signs of improvement in the worst-affected areas where the outbreak hit hardest -- even if the full impact of the vaccinations would take time to be felt.
"Vaccinations will become effective four months after receiving the shots," he said.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people has been battling its worst measles outbreak since March 15, with more than 50,000 confirmed and suspected cases.
The highly contagious disease has affected children younger than nine months as well as older adults.
Measles impacts children the hardest.
Their breathing can become strained, their strength fades and in the most severe cases, the infection reaches the brain, causing swelling that can lead to lasting damage -- or death.
Gaps in vaccination coverage during and after the chaos of a 2024 uprising that overthrew the autocratic government left the youngest generation badly exposed.
"Bangladesh has gone through quite a transition over the last couple of years," Flowers said. 
"The failure to order vaccines was not the result of a lack of money; it was the decision around how to procure them that created a delay," she added.
She stressed the need to strengthen vaccination programmes and increase funding for health facilities, surveillance and data systems in the future.
"We want to move to a place where routine vaccinations are working properly and reaching the children who need to be reached," Flowers said.
She suggested lessons must be learned about the dire failures that led to swathes of deaths, including delays in vaccine procurement.
"No outbreak emerges suddenly overnight," Flowers said, adding that the UN agency had sent five letters and held at least 10 meetings with previous governments warning of the risks.
A new government was elected in February, weeks before the outbreak began.
"There are always circumstances linked to it, particularly in the case of a vaccine-preventable outbreak," she said. 
"So the after-action review is going to be critical."
sa/pjm/lga

virus

Worried and under-equipped, Ebola-hit east DR Congo awaits medical aid

  • But equipment to isolate and treat those infected by Ebola, which is transmitted through close contact, only began arriving in Rwampara on Monday, several days after the outbreak was declared.
  • At the hospital in Rwampara, one of the epicentres of a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a simple plastic strip marked off the isolation centre for patients, yet to be built.
  • But equipment to isolate and treat those infected by Ebola, which is transmitted through close contact, only began arriving in Rwampara on Monday, several days after the outbreak was declared.
At the hospital in Rwampara, one of the epicentres of a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a simple plastic strip marked off the isolation centre for patients, yet to be built.
The response is slow to get off the ground in the vast central African country, where its 17th flare-up of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever has hit hard-to-reach eastern regions beset for years by armed groups.
The hospital is only about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) from Bunia, the main city in Ituri, one of the country's most violence-hit provinces.
But equipment to isolate and treat those infected by Ebola, which is transmitted through close contact, only began arriving in Rwampara on Monday, several days after the outbreak was declared.
In front of the hospital gates, a guard in a surgical mask did his best to keep track of all the comings and goings.
A few basins for handwashing have been set up near the blue-painted buildings of the hospital, where around a hundred suspected Ebola patients are already being cared for, according to an official.
Inside, nurses had no full protective gear before Friday. The residents of the area are even worse off.
"We dig graves and bury dead people without gloves or any protection," said Salama Bamunoba, a youth organisation representative.
No vaccine or specific treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, responsible for the new outbreak, which Congolese authorities say is suspected to have killed more than 130 people.
The measures aimed at trying to curb its spread rely essentially on adherence to preventive steps and the rapid detection of cases.
"Setting up an appropriate area for triage and isolation was our main concern," Bamunoba said.
But, he added, "the government and its partners really dragged their feet".
In town, the dusty streets were busy as usual with people and motorcycles and shoppers still strolled around market stalls, while schools remained open.

'Full of suspect cases'  

In Rwampara and other villages outside the city of Bunia, home to more than a million people and tens of thousands of others displaced by conflict, worry has begun to spread among the population.
"We treated this epidemic like a joke, but today we can see that the situation is becoming more and more serious," resident Gims Maniwa said.
"Here, in Congo, a lot of things are done carelessly and that's not good," he added.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamaba has said that the authorities have "everything that healthcare providers will need".
The government spokesman on Tuesday highlighted the DRC's long past experience in handling Ebola outbreaks, mostly without the use of vaccines.
The previous large-scale surge of Ebola in the country's east, plagued for three decades by conflict, killed nearly 2,300 people, out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020.
On the tarmac at Bunia airport, dozens of staff of the World Health Organization (WHO) in fluorescent vests busily unloaded boxes from a cargo plane.
Protective kits and tents were among 12 tonnes of medical supplies that the WHO announced on Tuesday had been delivered to the regions hit by the virus.
Tonnes of supplies piled up in the warehouses of the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Bunia, including crucial personal protective equipment kits intended for health teams, who are particularly exposed.
The Ebola outbreak has struck as NGOs struggle with cuts in international aid especially in the United States since President Donald Trump's return to the White House last year.
The protective gear "is going to be a huge relief for a lot of our teams", MSF emergency programme manager Trish Newport said.
She said the health facilities in the region were full of suspected cases.
"Every facility they (the MSF team) called said: 'We are full of suspect cases. We don't have any space'. This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now," she added.
"What is really important is that we get material on the ground as quickly as possible."
str-clt/kjm/rlp

hantavirus

Ebola, hantavirus show world's risk preparedness lagging: pandemic expert

BY NINA LARSON

  • Over six years after the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 pandemic, global efforts to revamp public health crisis response have improved the reaction to the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, said Helen Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister and the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
  • The deadly hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks show that while the response to declared public health crises has improved, awareness of pandemic risks still lags, a leading pandemic expert warned Tuesday.
  • Over six years after the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 pandemic, global efforts to revamp public health crisis response have improved the reaction to the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, said Helen Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister and the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
The deadly hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks show that while the response to declared public health crises has improved, awareness of pandemic risks still lags, a leading pandemic expert warned Tuesday.
Over six years after the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 pandemic, global efforts to revamp public health crisis response have improved the reaction to the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, said Helen Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister and the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
"The new international health regulations are working," she told AFP in an interview in Geneva.
As soon as the alert was sounded last Friday over the new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and once the world learned a few weeks ago of the rare hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship in the Atlantic, "the response has gone quite well", she said.
"Our issue is now really upstream from that," she said, insisting that far more work needed to go into identifying risks and how "these outbreaks get away".
"I think we need a lot more knowledge around risk-informed preparedness," she said, urging more focus on knowing your risk and "what could crop up", and "be ready to deal with that".
"Those basic issues of surveillance, early detection... We're not there yet."
Clark said the hantavirus species behind the cruise ship outbreak that triggered a global health scare after three people died was known to be endemic in the area of Argentina where the ship departed from.
"But we're not clear how much was known about that by ships who depart regularly from there," she said.
Meanwhile, the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola believed to have killed more than 130 people in a remote province of DRC seems to have spread under the radar for weeks, with tests focused on another strain showing up negative.
"How could this have gone for four to six weeks, ... spreading while not getting the testing results that we needed to show that it was a particular variant?" Clark asked.
She called for thorough investigation of "the chain of events here, and what we can learn from it, and what it says about the capacities we need".

'Perfect storm'

Clark highlighted that the Ebola outbreak especially had laid bare the dire impact dramatic global aid cuts had on disease prevention efforts.
"There's a perfect storm," she warned, pointing to how countries had been "very suddenly expected to make up a lot of investment in the health system which previously came from donors".
"With the best will in the world, the poorest and most fragile countries just haven't got money sitting in the bank to do that, so things will get neglected across a range of areas." 
Clark insisted that "global solidarity remains extremely important".
"We're talking global public goods," she stressed, pointing to a confirmed Ebola case in a US national and how hantavirus had "popped up in places where people (disembarked) from the ship".
"We're in this together, and so we have to look to ways of financing preparedness or response which reflect our shared interests.”
nl/ag/ach 

virus

WHO worried about 'scale and speed' of deadly Ebola outbreak

BY CAMILLE LAFFONT WITH NINA LARSON IN GENEVA

  • WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic".
  • The World Health Organization on Tuesday voiced concern about the "scale and speed" of an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 130 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, warning it could be lengthy.
  • WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic".
The World Health Organization on Tuesday voiced concern about the "scale and speed" of an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 130 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, warning it could be lengthy.
Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century, and the UN health agency declared the latest surge of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever an international health emergency.
As residents awaited medical supplies in the DRC's conflict-torn east, aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had tried to send the sick in Ituri province to local hospitals, but was told: "We are full of suspected cases. We don't have any space."
"This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now," said MSF aid worker Trish Newport.
No vaccine or therapeutic treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is responsible for the outbreak -- the 17th in the vast central African country of more than 100 million people.
Tonnes of emergency medical supplies, including infection prevention kits and tents, as well as experts have arrived in recent days, local WHO footage showed.
With the recent cases largely concentrated in hard-to-reach areas, few samples have been laboratory-tested and figures are based mostly on suspected cases.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters on Tuesday there had been 136 deaths suspected to be linked to Ebola and about 543 suspected cases, calling for international aid to help combat the spread.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic".
The agency's representative in the DRC, Anne Ancia, said a vaccine candidate called Ervebo was being considered -- but that it would likely take at least two months to be available.
"I don't think that in two months we will be done with this outbreak," she added.

Conflict

At the hospital in Rwampara in northeastern Ituri province -- the epicentre of the outbreak, near the border with Uganda and South Sudan -- the response was slow, despite the surge in cases.
A simple strip of plastic marked off the site reserved for receiving patients.
"We dig graves and bury people who died without gloves or any protection. We're so exposed," Salama Bamunoba, from a local youth organisation, told AFP.
"We're already at about 100 cases. We didn't have an appropriate place to do triage and isolate suspected cases" until Monday, said one local hospital official.
The DRC's deadliest Ebola outbreak, between 2018 and 2020, claimed nearly 2,300 lives from 3,500 cases.
The east is a gold-mining hub with people regularly crisscrossing the region, and has been plagued by clashes between local militias for years.
The virus has already spread into neighbouring provinces, as well as beyond the DRC's borders into Uganda.
Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain of the disease, which has caused the biggest recorded outbreaks.
The Bundibugyo strain has previously been responsible for outbreaks in Uganda in 2007 and in the DRC in 2012. The mortality rate was 30 to 50 percent.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi urged citizens to keep "calm" and take precautions, the presidency said on X.
Suspected cases have been reported in the commercial hub of Butembo in North Kivu province, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the epidemic's ground zero, Kamba said.
Another case has been recorded in Goma, the North Kivu provincial capital, which was seized by fighters from anti-government militia M23 in January last year.
Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, appealed to the Rwanda-backed group to reopen the city's airport to help combat the outbreak.
Aid organisations are struggling with a drop in international aid, particularly from the United States since President Donald Trump's second term.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington had released $13 million in aid to combat Ebola in the DRC, after sweeping US aid cuts last year, and claimed the WHO had been "a little late" identifying the outbreak.

US screening

Uganda said two Ebola cases -- one infection and one death -- had been recorded there, involving Congolese nationals who crossed the border.
Germany meanwhile said it was readying to receive and treat a US citizen who has contracted the virus -- a doctor from an American Christian NGO.
The United States announced it was screening air passengers from outbreak-hit areas and temporarily suspending visa services.
But a State Department official said Washington would allow the DRC's national football team to travel to the United States for the World Cup.
Bahrain meanwhile announced a 30-day ban on visitors from the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda.
Trump in one of his first acts on returning to office last year set in motion a US withdrawal from the WHO, which he attacked bitterly over its response to Covid.
clt-nl/kjm-phz-jhb/ach 

health

Hantavirus cruise operator says ship not source of outbreak

  • "The indications strongly suggest that the virus was introduced prior to embarkation and did not originate from the vessel itself," Oceanwide Expeditions CEO Remi Bouysset said in a statement.
  • The operator of the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak said the virus was likely introduced before passengers boarded and did not originate on the vessel itself.
  • "The indications strongly suggest that the virus was introduced prior to embarkation and did not originate from the vessel itself," Oceanwide Expeditions CEO Remi Bouysset said in a statement.
The operator of the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak said the virus was likely introduced before passengers boarded and did not originate on the vessel itself.
The MV Hondius, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, made headlines after three passengers died from hantavirus -- a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.
"The indications strongly suggest that the virus was introduced prior to embarkation and did not originate from the vessel itself," Oceanwide Expeditions CEO Remi Bouysset said in a statement.
He said this was based on the medical information currently available, including guidance from World Health Organization experts and health authorities.
"At this stage, there is no indication that the source of infection was linked to the vessel's condition or to Oceanwide Expeditions' onboard operations," he added.
The WHO has scrambled to reassure the world that the outbreak was not a repeat of the Covid pandemic, stressing that contagion was very rare.
The ship docked in Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands on Monday, with the skeleton crew facing weeks of quarantine.
Everyone still on board is asymptomatic, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, and being closely monitored by two medics.
Hantavirus has been confirmed in seven patients, with one other probable case, according to an AFP tally from official sources.
The virus typically spreads from the urine, faeces and saliva of infected rodents and is endemic in Argentina, where the voyage began.
Those infected have the Andes virus -- the only strain of hantavirus that can spread between people.
The ship set off April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before steaming north to Cape Verde, then Spain's Canary Islands.
Officials in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province have downplayed the likelihood that the first victim in the outbreak became infected in Ushuaia.
The province has not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago.
The Andes strain is however present in other Argentine provinces more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away in the north.
rh/jhb

hantavirus

Argentine researchers collect rodents for hantavirus tests

  • The hantavirus outbreak aboard the Hondius, which set sail from Ushuaia on April 1, triggered a global health scare.
  • Argentine scientists on Tuesday began collecting rodents in the woods around Ushuaia to search for carriers of hantavirus in the area from which the virus-stricken MV Hondius set sail.
  • The hantavirus outbreak aboard the Hondius, which set sail from Ushuaia on April 1, triggered a global health scare.
Argentine scientists on Tuesday began collecting rodents in the woods around Ushuaia to search for carriers of hantavirus in the area from which the virus-stricken MV Hondius set sail.
The first of three cruise ship passengers to die from the rodent-borne virus, a Dutchman, spent 48 hours in Ushuaia with his wife before embarking on the cruise, raising suspicions they became infected in Ushuaia.
Biologists from the Malbran Institute, Argentina's leading center for infectious diseases, collected specimens from dozens of traps they set a day earlier around the picturesque city at the southern tip of South America, including Tierra del Fuego National Park, a vast mountain reserve, AFP observed.
Wearing gloves and masks they placed the traps in sacks and then took them away to take blood and tissue samples that will be sent to Malbran's headquarters in Buenos Aires for testing.
The samples will be tested for the Andes train of hantavirus detected in several of the Hondius's passengers -- the only known strain to spread between people.
The scientists refused on Tuesday to comment on their work but appeared pleased with their yield.
"The traps worked very well," a local health source told AFP.
Local scientists are divided on whether the rodent in question is the long-tailed rat (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) or a subspecies, the Magellanic long-tailed rat (Oligoryzomys magellanicus).
The rodent in the area, which resembles a field mouse, measures 6-8 centimeters (2.4-3.1 inches) and has a tail that can reach 15 cm.
It is nocturnal, lives in wooded areas and feeds on fruits and seeds.
The scientists will continue laying up to 150 traps each night throughout the week in order to glean a sufficiently large sample for the results to be representative.
The results are expected in as much as a month.
The hantavirus outbreak aboard the Hondius, which set sail from Ushuaia on April 1, triggered a global health scare.
Three passengers died from the virus, for which no vaccines nor specific treatments exist.
The World Health Organization has sought to reassure the world that the outbreak is not a repeat of the Covid pandemic.
Officials in Tierra del Fuego province have downplayed the likelihood that the Dutchman became infected in Ushuaia.
The province has not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago.
The Andes strain is however present in provinces over 1,000 kilometers away in the north, such as Rio Negro and Chubut.
sa-str/pbl/cb/dw 

virus

Norway reports Europe's first case of bird flu in a polar bear

  • A walrus that died of bird flu had already been found in Svalbard in 2023, and the virus was also documented the same year in a polar bear that died in Alaska.
  • Norwegian authorities on Tuesday announced that avian influenza has been documented in a polar bear for the first time in Europe, in the Svalbard region in the Arctic. 
  • A walrus that died of bird flu had already been found in Svalbard in 2023, and the virus was also documented the same year in a polar bear that died in Alaska.
Norwegian authorities on Tuesday announced that avian influenza has been documented in a polar bear for the first time in Europe, in the Svalbard region in the Arctic. 
The H5N5 variant of the virus was detected in samples taken from a male bear about one year old and a walrus found dead in mid-May on the icy archipelago, around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the Norwegian Veterinary Institute said. 
"The results are part of a trend in which highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses are increasingly being detected in mammals in Europe," noted Ragnhild Tonnessen, bird flu coordinator at the Veterinary Institute, quoted in a press release. 
"At the same time, in recent years, the virus has spread to new regions, including the Arctic, where it can have consequences for vulnerable populations and ecosystems," she added. 
The governor of Svalbard said separately that the presence of the virus in brain samples from both animals "is consistent with the hypothesis that it was very likely the cause" of their deaths. 
A walrus that died of bird flu had already been found in Svalbard in 2023, and the virus was also documented the same year in a polar bear that died in Alaska.
From January 2025 to March 2026, 140 million animals died or were culled because of avian influenza in nearly 70 countries, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). 
That is well below a peak seen in 2021–2022, but since then, the virus has spread widely among non-avian species, increasing the risk of transmission to humans. 
phy/pdw/rmb

Ebola

Race to find vaccines, treatments for Ebola strain behind outbreak

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • It is the 17th Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, but just the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
  • An escalating outbreak of a rare Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo has kicked off a race to find vaccines and treatments that can be quickly tested and rolled out to save lives and stem the crisis.
  • It is the 17th Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, but just the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
An escalating outbreak of a rare Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo has kicked off a race to find vaccines and treatments that can be quickly tested and rolled out to save lives and stem the crisis.
More than l30 people have died so far during the outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as the United States warned its citizens not to travel to the affected region.
It is the 17th Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, but just the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
However scientists have developed numerous candidates for vaccines and treatments that have not yet been tested in humans.
The WHO has said it will examine the options, including a vaccine called Ervebo that targets the more common Zaire strain and has already been deployed in numerous countries.
Virologist Thomas Geisbert, who helped develop the Ervebo vaccine, has designed a similar, single-injection jab targeting the Bundibugyo strain that research on monkeys has found offers protection against the virus.
However trialling vaccines in humans and mass manufacturing doses is a lengthy and expensive process, Geisbert told AFP, comparing the market for a Bundibugyo jab to that of the Andes hantavirus strain that recently sparked global alarm.
"There hasn't been an incentive for big pharma to jump in, because it's not a money-maker," said the researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Geisbert first published a study about his Bundibugyo vaccine candidate back in 2013, but it has since "just sat there", he said.
It was a similar story when he first published research in 2005 about what would eventually become the Ervebo vaccine.
It was only in 2014, during the biggest Ebola outbreak on record which killed 11,300 people in West Africa, when attention turned towards his vaccine.
It took US pharmaceutical company MSD around nine months to roll out the first doses of Ervebo, which research has found to be 84-percent protective against Zaire.
"I really hope that somebody jumps in now and does something like that" for Bundibugyo, Geisbert said, estimating that it could be done in as little as six or seven months.
A spokesperson for MSD -- known as Merck in North America -- told AFP that independent data on non-Zaire strains such as Bundibugyo is "limited, not from humans and not from evaluation of Ervebo".

A new mRNA vaccine

Just as the scale of the DRC outbreak was becoming clear on Monday, research about a newly developed vaccine candidate was published in the journal PNAS.
Chinese researchers used the mRNA technology made famous during the Covid pandemic for their vaccine targeting the three main Ebola strains, including Bundibugyo.
Virologist Connor Bamford of Queen's University Belfast welcomed the effort, but warned that such mRNA vaccines are expensive to make and need to be kept cold.
"This could limit its use in Africa," he told AFP.
Geisbert pointed out that the vaccine was only tested on mice -- and these results often do not translate to monkeys, let alone humans.
Scientists at Oxford University told AFP they were working with the world's largest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, to get a viral vector vaccine called ChAdOx1 BDBV ready as soon as possible.
"We are working through the logistics at pace," but cannot give a precise timeline yet, Teresa Lambe, head of vaccine immunology at the Oxford Vaccine Group, told AFP.

Treatments?

A WHO-sponsored trial of two experimental Bundibugyo treatments could soon reportedly be launched in Ebola-hit areas.
"We're in a really strong position to quickly launch trials," University of Oxford researcher Amanda Rojek told Nature on Monday. "We're working day and night."
One of the treatments, an antiviral called remdesivir made by US pharma firm Gilead, has been tested on humans for the Zaire Ebola strain, but not for Bundibugyo.
However Geisbert said that during tests in his lab, remdesivir had "stronger in vitro data against Bundibugyo than it does for Zaire".
The other drug being considered for a trial is a monoclonal antibody called MBP134, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, which targets Ebola viruses including Bundibugyo.
Geisbert, who has also tested this option, said the "fantastic" drug effectively protected monkeys even if they were already sick.
Any clinical trials would need to be approved by the governments of DR Congo and Uganda.
dl/rlp

virus

Long-running conflicts muddy DR Congo Ebola response

  • The Convention for Popular Revolution (CRP), an armed group often associated with the itinerant Hema, for its part declared a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday, before the Ebola outbreak was reported.
  • Attempts to get a grip on the Ebola outbreak currently spreading in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been complicated by the restive region's litany of long-running conflicts.
  • The Convention for Popular Revolution (CRP), an armed group often associated with the itinerant Hema, for its part declared a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday, before the Ebola outbreak was reported.
Attempts to get a grip on the Ebola outbreak currently spreading in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been complicated by the restive region's litany of long-running conflicts.
The Rwanda-backed M23 militia has set up a parallel administration in the swathes of territory it has seized from the Congolese government in the east, already the scene between 2018 and 2020 of the central African country's deadliest Ebola epidemic to date.

Inter-ethnic conflict

The outbreak's epicentre is in Ituri province on the border with Uganda and South Sudan in the Congolese northeast, where the violence wrought by various armed groups has led to intense episodes of internal displacement. 
Since 2017, the areas north of Bunia, the provincial capital, have been torn apart by a violent conflict between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders. Massacres leaving up to dozens of people dead are regularly reported. 
The town of Mongbwalu, the latest Ebola outbreak's ground zero, is on the turf of the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a militia claiming to defend Lendu interests. 
"So far, we have not encountered any resistance from the armed groups," a health official in Mongbwalu said on Monday. "We are looking for strategies to reach the sick in insecure areas."
The Convention for Popular Revolution (CRP), an armed group often associated with the itinerant Hema, for its part declared a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday, before the Ebola outbreak was reported.
The pitched battles pitting the CRP against the Congolese military and the Codeco militia are marked by numerous abuses and killings of civilians. 

IS-linked fighters

To the southwest of Bunia stretches the vast Ituri forest, which serves as a safe haven for fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Formed by former Ugandan rebels who fled across the border, the ADF is notorious for extreme violence towards civilians. It has committed massacres in both Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province, killing at least 36 people in several attacks in early May.
The road leading from Bunia to Beni, a major city in the north of North Kivu, cuts through an area that falls prey to regular ADF raids.
Healthcare and humanitarian workers are not spared by the armed group, who kill indiscriminately. 
ADF fighters often target roads along which the military is slow to intervene, despite the help of the Ugandan army fighting alongside Congolese soldiers in the province since 2021. 

Front line

To the south, the DRC's eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu have been cut in two by the front lines pitting the Congolese army against the M23 and its Rwandan allies. 
According to local sources, clashes have continued on the ground since the beginning of the epidemic, notably in South Kivu -- despite the DRC and Rwanda signing a peace deal brokered by the United States in December.
The airport in North Kivu's provincial capital Goma, which once helped funnel urgently needed aid into the eastern DRC by air, has been shut since the M23 took the city in January 2025. 
In April, the warring parties signed a declaration in Switzerland committing them to help the deployment of humanitarian aid. 
Francois Moreillon, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the DRC, on Monday appealed to the belligerents' "sense of responsibility" and urged them to open "the way to effective humanitarian access, cooperation and coordination".

Parallel government

A first Ebola infection has been confirmed in Goma, which lies near the Rwandan border and remains in M23 hands.
While the M23 has set up to govern for the long haul for the regions under its control, it has never had to manage the response to a serious epidemic. 
The M23-appointed governors of the North and South Kivu provinces on Sunday announced the deployment of health, monitoring and awareness-raising teams among the population, as well as the tightening of health measures in medical facilities and in high-density areas.
Since Sunday, "no new cases have been reported", the M23's spokesman said in a statement on Monday.
str-clt/sbk/kjm

hantavirus

Argentine scientists lay first traps in hantavirus hunt

  • Beginning Monday, biologists from Buenos Aires are spending several days setting traps at various locations on the southern island of Tierra del Fuego to analyze whether the captured rodents carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only one known to spread between people. 
  • Scientists attempting to determine whether or not hantavirus is present in Argentina's Ushuaia on Monday laid the very first traps to catch rodents potentially carrying the disease, AFP journalists observed.
  • Beginning Monday, biologists from Buenos Aires are spending several days setting traps at various locations on the southern island of Tierra del Fuego to analyze whether the captured rodents carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only one known to spread between people. 
Scientists attempting to determine whether or not hantavirus is present in Argentina's Ushuaia on Monday laid the very first traps to catch rodents potentially carrying the disease, AFP journalists observed.
The MV Hondius cruise ship, where a hantavirus outbreak on board killed three people and triggered a global health scare, set sail from the city at Argentina's southernmost tip on April 1.
Beginning Monday, biologists from Buenos Aires are spending several days setting traps at various locations on the southern island of Tierra del Fuego to analyze whether the captured rodents carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only one known to spread between people. 
The rare respiratory disease, for which there is no cure, typically spreads through the urine, feces and saliva of infected rodents.
Biologists and national park staff wearing masks and gloves set up dozens of small rectangular metal cages on trails outside Ushuaia as night fell.
Others were placed in Tierra del Fuego National Park, 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of forests, lakes and mountains located 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the city.
The team set up to 150 traps, according to a local healthcare source.
Provincial officials insist that Tierra del Fuego has not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago -- unlike in provinces to the north, such as Rio Negro and Chubut.
Local scientists believe it is more likely that the infections aboard the cruise ship occurred in another region.
Two of the vessel's hantavirus victims -- a married Dutch couple -- had traveled extensively in Argentina for four months, with forays into Chile and Uruguay.
sa/lm/nn/cr/cc/md/mlm

Ebola

US to screen for Ebola at airports, one American in DR Congo infected

  • The US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, said it had temporarily paused all visa services, and that impacted applicants had been notified.
  • The United States said Monday it is bolstering precautions to prevent the spread of Ebola, including screening air travelers from outbreak-hit areas and temporarily suspending visa services.
  • The US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, said it had temporarily paused all visa services, and that impacted applicants had been notified.
The United States said Monday it is bolstering precautions to prevent the spread of Ebola, including screening air travelers from outbreak-hit areas and temporarily suspending visa services.
The measures shared by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) come as the World Health Organization has declared the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) an international health emergency.
In a briefing, Satish Pillai, the health agency's Ebola response incident manager, told journalists one American in the DRC had contracted the virus following exposure related "to their work" there.
"The person developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday," Pillai said, adding that efforts were underway to transport the individual to Germany for treatment.
The official added the United States was attempting to evacuate six additional people for health monitoring.
Pillai said there are about 25 people working in the US field office in the DRC, and that the CDC was fulfilling a request to send an additional senior technical coordinator.
"At this time, CDC assesses the immediate risk to the general US public as low, but we will continue to evaluate the evolving situation and may adjust public health measures as additional information becomes available," the health agency said in a statement.
In addition to screening at airports, the CDC said it was implementing entry restrictions on non-US passport holders if they had traveled to Uganda, DRC or South Sudan within the past 21 days.
The US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, said it had temporarily paused all visa services, and that impacted applicants had been notified.
Trump said he was "concerned" by the outbreak but that "I think that it's been confined right now to Africa."

Criticism of US response

There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the strain responsible for the current spread of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever.
Ninety-one reported deaths are suspected to have been caused by the current surge in cases, according to the latest figures released on Sunday by Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba.
Around 350 suspected cases have been reported. Most of those affected are aged between 20 and 39 and more than 60 percent are women.
The United States under President Donald Trump formally withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) this year. 
In recent days, US officials have avoided questions about how the administration's cutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) -- key in responding to previous Ebola outbreaks -- has impacted current efforts to monitor and manage the virus's spread.
CDC officials have emphasized they are collaborating with international partners and health officials in impacted countries.
The public health measures announced Monday will include continued "deployment of CDC personnel to support outbreak containment efforts in affected regions" as well as assistance with contact tracing and laboratory testing, the agency said.
And the US State Department said in a statement Monday it had mobilized $13 million in aid for "immediate response efforts."
But Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, said the US response thus far was "disappointing" and called travel bans "more theater than effective public health measures."
"The administration claimed it could negotiate bilateral deals and replace the capacity of WHO with domestic efforts. This outbreak clearly shows that is a failed strategy," he told AFP.
He said during previous Ebola outbreaks, coordinated efforts between USAID, the CDC and US-funded nonprofits led to rapid response and containment.
This time, "we're weeks into an outbreak and only finding out about it after hundreds of cases and major spread including to the capital city of Uganda," Kavanagh said, adding that the Trump administration was "playing catch-up."
mdo/mjf