The World Health Organization said the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began months before officials formally declared the emergency.

The delay in detection allowed the virus to spread unchecked, resulting in what health officials describe as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.

During a news conference in Bunia, WHO officials said the virus began circulating in February 2026 [1]. However, the outbreak was not officially declared until mid-May 2026 [2]. This gap in detection meant the virus had a significant head start before international response protocols were triggered.

"The outbreak started months before we declared it, and it is now the fastest‑growing Ebola outbreak on record," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

Medical officials said the delay was due to diagnostic errors in the early stages of the crisis. Many of the first patients were misdiagnosed with malaria and typhoid, which share similar early symptoms with Ebola [5]. Because these more common illnesses were suspected, the presence of the Ebola virus went unnoticed by local health providers.

"We now know the virus was circulating as early as February," said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

The human cost of the delayed response has been severe. The death toll is currently approaching 1,500 [4], with a case-fatality rate of 44 percent [3]. The speed of transmission has placed immense pressure on healthcare infrastructure in the affected regions.

"It took five months to spot the outbreak," said Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, WHO Ebola response coordinator.

WHO teams are now working to contain the spread, though the late start has complicated efforts to trace contacts and isolate new cases in the DRC.

“"The outbreak started months before we declared it, and it is now the fastest‑growing Ebola outbreak on record,"”

The failure to identify the virus for several months highlights a critical vulnerability in regional surveillance systems, where the prevalence of endemic diseases like malaria can mask the emergence of high-consequence pathogens. Because Ebola's early symptoms are non-specific, the reliance on symptomatic diagnosis over rapid laboratory testing creates a window of opportunity for the virus to reach a tipping point of community transmission before a global health alert is issued.