Frontline health workers at an Ebola treatment and triage facility in Ituri province, DRC. Source: WHO "Spreading like a wildfire" Abdulsalami Nasidi, a public health consultant who helped establish Africa CDC, told Al Jazeera the absence of any proven vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain — the rarest of the four Ebola variants known to affect humans, with no approved vaccine or treatment — means the virus is "spreading like a wildfire." Compounding that, the epidemic is unfolding inside an active conflict zone, straining public health resources that were already limited before the outbreak began. Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya issued his starkest warning yet the week before: "We must act now. If we do not stop it today, this will become the worst outbreak the world has ever documented." WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has separately warned the true case count could be more than double the official figure, since insecurity continues to block access to affected communities. Contact tracing now reaches roughly 80% of known contacts, but response teams still cannot reach every village or deploy where they're needed most. Health workers are striking over unpaid wages, mid-outbreak An outbreak already straining under conflict and mistrust now faces a labour crisis inside its own treatment centres. Dozens of workers at Rwampara General Hospital near Bunia went on strike last week; the hospital runs a major Ebola treatment centre, parts of which were set ablaze in May by angry residents who chased fleeing health workers. On July 25, a fresh strike paralysed the Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, the provincial capital, as roughly 100 doctors, nurses and security staff stopped work over unpaid bonuses. "We need to be paid, because in the meantime the disease is spreading at the treatment centre," striking worker Martin Bolombi told the Associated Press. "I've already had five people die who are still inside there. A solution must be found for us." More than 100 health workers have been infected since the outbreak began in May, and around 35 have died — a toll worsened by protective equipment shortages and, in some communities, hostility from residents who question whether the disease is real. A doctor and a health worker were among the latest deaths reported this week. A vaccine trial has finally started Amid the grim numbers, one genuine piece of progress: on July 24, the University of Oxford's Oxford Vaccine Group administered the first dose of an experimental Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine to a volunteer — the world's first human trial for this specific strain. "This is an important milestone for the trial, and marks the next phase in our multinational collaborative journey to develop a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine," said the trial's chief investigator, Dr. Katrina Pollock. It remains an early-stage trial, with no near-term prospect of a deployable vaccine for this outbreak itself. Travel restrictions that contradict WHO's own guidance The United States and Canada have both imposed entry restrictions on travellers who have recently been in the DRC — measures that run directly counter to WHO's own recommendations issued in May, when it declared the outbreak a global health emergency. Tedros has instead called for a ceasefire in the conflict gripping eastern DRC, arguing that medical resources alone cannot resolve the crisis without political action to open humanitarian access before the virus takes hold in provinces not yet affected. _Reporting sources: Al Jazeera / Associated Press (Faisal Ali, 25 July 2026); University of Oxford, Oxford Vaccine Group; WHO Director-General statements; Africa CDC._