The global nursing community has delivered an urgent call to Democratic Republic of the Congo authorities to immediately compensate healthcare workers battling the latest Ebola outbreak. The International Council of Nurses (ICN), the world’s largest nursing organization, warned that without urgent financial support, the fight against the deadly virus could collapse.

The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak on May 15. Three months into the response, health facilities—already among the world’s most under-resourced—are struggling to contain the virus due to severe funding gaps and delayed payments to frontline staff.

Howard Catton, ICN’s Chief Executive Officer, emphasized that “no battle against Ebola can be won without ensuring those leading the charge are paid fairly and consistently.”

“Nurses and healthcare workers are putting their lives on the line every day to protect their communities, often at great personal risk. Yet, months into this crisis, many still have not received their salaries,” he stated. The ICN, which represents over 140 national nursing associations and 30 million nurses worldwide, has written to DRC’s Health Minister Roger Kamba demanding immediate action.

According to the council, healthcare workers on the front lines report unpaid wages stretching back two to three months. Catton stressed that this situation demands urgent political leadership and direct intervention, calling for three immediate measures: payment of all outstanding salaries, guaranteed future payments, and essential protections for staff.

The ICN’s demands extend beyond unpaid wages. The organization is also pressing for the provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), health insurance, hazard allowances, and other critical safeguards to ensure workers can operate safely.

The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC has already claimed over 2,128 lives from 4,566 confirmed cases within just three months of its declaration, according to official figures. This makes it the second-largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, and its spread is accelerating faster than any previous outbreak.

“This is already the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, and it is spreading faster than any we have ever seen,” warned Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in a recent statement. He added that the current trajectory suggests it could surpass even the devastating West Africa Ebola epidemic of 2014–2016.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reports that seven times more cases and five times more deaths have been recorded in the DRC in the first three months of this outbreak compared to the same period during the West Africa crisis. However, funding remains critically insufficient. Of the $518 million required for the joint preparedness and response plan launched in early June by Africa CDC and WHO, only $264 million has been mobilized to date.

To date, no vaccine or specific treatment exists for the Bundibugyo variant driving this epidemic. In the absence of targeted solutions, the WHO is advocating for a clinical trial using the Ervebo vaccine, which is currently approved for the Zaire strain of the virus. Vasee Moorthy, Head of WHO’s Research & Development program, confirmed that the trial protocol is “on the verge of submission to DRC regulatory authorities for review.”