WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo a global health emergency

THE WORLD HEALTH Organisation has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern”.

Some 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have been reported so far, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa).

The WHO said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency and advised against the closure of international borders.

Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak 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 DRC and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been reported.

Officials first reported the spread of the disease in DRC’s eastern province of Ituri, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday.

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

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was preparing a “large-scale response”, calling the rapid spread of the outbreak “extremely concerning”, in warnings echoed by authorities.

“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,” DRC’s health minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said. “This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50%.”

Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60-90%.

“The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” says Trish Newport, MSF Emergency Programme Manager, which is mobilising medical and support staff to the area.

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Large-scale transport of medical equipment is a challenge in DRC, a country of more than 100 million people which is four times the size of France but has poor communications infrastructure.

High risk of spread

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there are “significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread” and “limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases”. 

But he said the high positivity rate of initial samples, the confirmation of cases in two countries, and the increasing reports of suspected cases, “all point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.”

Ebola was first reported in 1976 in the DRC. It’s thought to have spread from bats. 

The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids or through broken skin. Infected persons become contagious only once they display symptoms. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

Symptoms of Ebola include fever, haemorrhaging and vomiting.

Around 15,000 people have died from the virus in Africa over the past 50 years.

This is the 17th outbreak to hit the DRC, and officials warned of a high risk of spread.

The previous outbreak was last August in the central region. At least 34 people died before the outbreak was declared eradicated in December.

Nearly 2,300 people died in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC between 2018 and 2020.

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people.

The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.

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