GENEVA — World Health Organization member states convened at the 79th World Health Assembly on Tuesday voted to formally back an emergency resolution directing the WHO Secretariat to accelerate its operational response to the worsening Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned delegates that the situation had reached a critical threshold requiring immediate collective action.
The resolution, co-sponsored by the African Union bloc and the European Union member states, authorises the release of emergency contingency funds from the WHO's Contingency Fund for Emergencies and calls on donor nations to pledge additional resources within 30 days. It also directs the WHO to work with vaccine manufacturers to fast-track compassionate-use authorisation for experimental Ebola therapeutics, given that no approved vaccine or specific treatment is currently available for the strain driving the current outbreak — a point WHO officials and Indian health authorities highlighted as recently as Monday when advising citizens against non-essential travel to affected regions.
Senior delegates from Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa led floor debate urging that the resolution include binding timelines for supply-chain deliveries of personal protective equipment to DRC provincial health ministries, citing logistical failures during the 2018–2020 Kivu outbreak as a cautionary precedent. The United States delegation, attending under a reduced advisory mandate following domestic policy changes, offered technical support through the CDC without committing new bilateral funding, a posture that drew criticism from several low-income country representatives.
The DRC's Minister of Health, addressing the Assembly via video link from Kinshasa, confirmed that the national emergency operations centre had activated its highest alert tier and that contact tracing operations had been expanded to three additional provinces. He requested that WHO coordinate with UNICEF on risk-communication campaigns to counter misinformation circulating on social media platforms that has hampered community cooperation in affected zones.
Public health analysts observing the Assembly proceedings noted that Tuesday's vote represents the most assertive collective WHA action on an Ebola event since the organisation faced widespread criticism for its slow initial response to the 2014 West Africa outbreak. With the Assembly scheduled to close later this week, member states are expected to finalise the resolution language and attach a financial annex before adjournment, setting the operational framework for WHO's field teams already deployed in eastern DRC.