Ebola in DRC: WHO urges countries to complete pandemic treaty
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Vanguard
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is urging countries to complete the international pandemic treaty, as the Ebola outbreak in the DRC highlights cross-border health risks. Negotiations resumed in Geneva at their ninth meeting, according to the WHO.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday 2 November 2026 called on countries to finalise the international pandemic treaty, citing the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was speaking at the opening in Geneva of the ninth meeting on concluding the agreement, reports Vanguard.
Tedros said the last outstanding issue was the pathogen access and benefit-sharing mechanism, known as PABS. It is intended to govern the sharing of samples that pose a pandemic risk and access to the resulting vaccines, tests and treatments.
The pandemic agreement adopted in May 2025 left this mechanism unresolved. Tedros said the experience of Covid-19, during which some countries secured more vaccines than they needed while others waited, had prolonged the pandemic and cost lives.
The call came after the report of 10,351 Ebola cases and 5,026 deaths in the DRC, published on 1 November. It also followed the opening of two isolation centres in Kasindi, announced on 2 November.
