Africa CDC urges Congo, Uganda to fund Ebola fight and vaccine push

Addisababa,UPDATED: Jun 20, 2026 02:18 IST

African officials must increase funding for the response to the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda and for vaccine development, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday, warning that the continent cannot keep depending on foreign partners for its health needs.

The outbreak has killed more than 200 people out of 894 confirmed cases since May 15, with up to 35,000 contacts identified, the agency said. It added that the actual number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed weeks late.

Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya told The Associated Press in Addis Ababa that the current outbreak, which he described as the worst ever at this stage, was another reminder for Africa to invest more in its health sector and reduce its reliance on foreign partners. “If this outbreak was in Europe, the United States or other continents, they would already have developed a vaccine and medicine,” Kaseya said.

He added, “We don’t want to be a continent begging every day. We want to be a continent of people who know what they are doing and who are respected because they are doing the right thing.”

Response efforts have been complicated by the absence of approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo virus. The more common Zaire virus, for which there is a vaccine, was behind most of Congo’s previous 16 Ebola outbreaks. The centre of the current outbreak is in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, where burials, including those of babies, have become routine. Health workers there are working with little rest while also facing attacks by angry residents and widespread scepticism.

Successive health emergencies, including Covid-19, have led to efforts to strengthen vaccine manufacturing in Africa, though Kaseya said progress has been limited. The continent, whose population is projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, produces less than 1 per cent of the vaccines it needs and 3 per cent of its medicines, leaving millions vulnerable to epidemics.

While efforts are under way to speed up the development of vaccines and diagnostics, Kaseya said he was unsure a vaccine would be available by the end of the year. He also said the peak of the Ebola outbreak was still to come because of slow progress in identifying and monitoring contacts. Officials have yet to identify the outbreak’s patient zero and still need to trace more than 35,000 people who have come into contact with infected individuals.

“This is why we are accelerating our fundraising to put on the ground so many teams to look for any contact, direct or indirect, and to start following them,” Kaseya said. As part of the effort to get African countries to support the agency financially, he said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to travel to Ituri in Congo and to Uganda next week to support the mobilisation of funds.

Kaseya said the newly established African Epidemic Fund has received pledges of about USD 80 million from African governments, while a broader donor conference held this week generated pledges of about USD 910 million. Summing up the challenge, he said, “We need to take care of ourselves. We need to say, It’s time for us to really think strongly about how we can manufacture medicines and vaccines to meet our own needs.”

With PTI Inputs

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