The World Health Organization added the first molecular diagnostic test for Bundibugyo virus to its Emergency Use Listing on 2 July, a step that enables health workers to confirm infections within hours using blood samples rather than relying on clinical judgement alone. The listing came as the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported 1,502 confirmed cases and 473 deaths, with Uganda recording 20 cases and France confirming one imported infection in a returning doctor. Viewed from Geneva, the tool addresses a critical gap: the rare Bundibugyo strain produces early symptoms indistinguishable from malaria, and no approved vaccines or specific treatments exist.

Laboratory confirmation has been the linchpin of outbreak control, yet until now responders lacked a quality-assured rapid test cleared for emergency deployment. The EUL procedure assesses safety, performance and manufacturing standards on an accelerated timeline, drawing on the model used for COVID-19 diagnostics. The listed test detects viral genetic material and can be run in the network of ten laboratories that the WHO and Africa CDC have expanded across affected provinces, which now have a combined capacity of over 2,000 tests per day. Officials in Kinshasa note that contact tracing has reached 82 per cent of identified contacts, up from 25 per cent early in the outbreak, a gain they attribute partly to faster case detection.

Response efforts are unfolding in eastern provinces where armed groups and mining-related population movements complicate surveillance. China dispatched a second medical team to the DRC on 3 July, while Washington requested more than $1.4 billion in supplemental funding, including $800 million for humanitarian aid and a quarantine facility in Kenya. Uganda has monitored 836 contacts with 100 per cent follow-up and has so far prevented community transmission. Meanwhile, the WHO announced that the first patients have been enrolled in a clinical trial evaluating treatments specifically targeting the Bundibugyo virus, a trial it describes as a scientific milestone for a strain that caused outbreaks in 2007 and 2012 with case-fatality rates of 30 and 50 per cent.

Additional diagnostic submissions are under EUL review, and the clinical trial will generate the first systematic data on therapeutic options. Cross-border coordination between the DRC and Uganda, including joint surveillance and information-sharing, remains the operational priority, especially after the imported case in France demonstrated the risk of international spread. The next factual marker will be the trial’s interim results and any further emergency listings, which together will determine whether the response can shift from containment to a treatment-supported suppression strategy.