The risk of an Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been judged to be "high" for Central Africa, but "low" globally by the World Health Organization (WHO), which believes the epidemic probably appeared "several months ago".

The WHO issued an international health alert on Sunday to address this 17th outbreak in this vast Central African country of more than 100 million inhabitants, where eastern provinces, difficult to access by road and plagued by violence from armed groups, are being hit.

According to the WHO, the epidemic is already suspected of having caused 139 deaths out of nearly 600 probable cases, and could continue, even if the risk of a pandemic is currently considered "low".

"The WHO has assessed the epidemic risk as high at national and regional levels and low at global level," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva the day after an emergency committee meeting on the epidemic.

This emergency committee, tasked with issuing a series of recommendations, confirmed that at this stage the epidemic "does not meet" the criteria for a pandemic emergency.

Meanwhile in Brussels, the European Commission indicated that the risk of infection in the EU is "very low" and that "there is no indication" that Europeans should take specific measures.

- Travel restrictions -

Ebola causes a highly lethal hemorrhagic fever, but the virus, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years, is relatively less contagious than, for example, Covid or measles.

One death and one case have been recorded in Uganda, but no local outbreaks have been reported.

Germany said on Tuesday that it would "welcome and care for" an American missionary doctor working for a Christian NGO in Ituri, who was exposed to the virus while treating patients.

The United States announced on Monday a strengthening of health controls at borders for air travelers from affected countries in Africa, and Bahrain, a small state on the Arabian Peninsula, announced on Tuesday evening that it would ban the entry of visitors from these countries for one month.

"All contact persons, all infected persons, should not travel," recommended Abdi Rahman Mahamud, director of health emergency alert and response operations at the WHO, on Wednesday.

- "Deep concern" for eastern DRC -

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed the finger at the slowness of the WHO, which, according to him, had "been a little slow" in identifying the epidemic.

"It could be a lack of understanding of how the IHR (International Health Regulations) works and the responsibilities of the WHO and other entities. We do not replace their work, we support them. That is why there may be some lack of understanding," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus responded on Wednesday.

The first case identified so far is a nurse who presented himself on April 24 at a health center in Bunia, the capital of Ituri. But the epicenter of the outbreak has been located about 90km away, in the Mongbwalu health zone, suggesting that the epidemic originated there and that the cases then spread.

The WHO was alerted to the emergence of a highly lethal disease on May 5, the first case of Ebola tested positive on May 15, and the organization declared an international health emergency two days later.

"Given the scale of the problem, we think that (the epidemic) probably started a few months ago, but investigations are ongoing," explained Anaïs Legand, technical expert on viral hemorrhagic fevers at the WHO, on Wednesday in Geneva.

"We expect these numbers to continue to rise, given the length of time the virus circulated before the outbreak was detected," added Dr. Tedros.

According to him, "several factors justify serious concern about the risk of increased spread and further deaths," such as the estimated number of cases, particularly in urban areas, deaths among healthcare workers, population movements in the region, and the nature of the virus variant, Bundibugyo, for which there is no licensed vaccine or treatment.

Today "our priority is really to break the chain of transmission by implementing contact tracing, isolation and care for all suspected and confirmed cases," announced Ms. Legand.