ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.

WHO said the outbreak doesn’t meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised against the closure of international borders.

WHO said on X that a laboratory-confirmed case has also been reported in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is about 620 miles from the outbreak’s epicenter in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting a possible wider spread. It said the patient had visited Ituri and that other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of Congo’s most populous and borders Ituri.

On Sunday, the rebel government of Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, said in a statement that the first confirmed case of Ebola was detected in the city. The infected person traveled from Ituri province and was currently under isolation, the statement said. Goma was the site of a rapid rebel offensive in early 2025, and the conflict between the Congolese armed forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel paramilitary group has displaced hundreds of thousands.

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. By WHO’s standards, it shows the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread, and it requires a coordinated international response.

In a separate statement on X on Sunday, the WHO Regional Office for Africa said that a team of 35 experts from the WHO and the Congolese Ministry of Health had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, along with 7 tons of emergency medical supplies and equipment.

The global response to previous declarations has been mixed. In 2024, when WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said that it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.

Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.

Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, WHO said.

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second time was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.

Dr. Richard Kitenge, chief of operations at the Centre des Opérations d’Urgence de Santé Publique, part of Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, recently arrived in Ituri. He said that while the risks may be high, Congo has weathered previous outbreaks.