Much lower fatality rate in current Ebola outbreak - WHO

The deadly Ebola outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo currently has a case fatality rate under 25% - much lower than in other recent outbreaks, a WHO update has shown.

Since the outbreak was declared in the DRC in mid-May, the World Health Organization has recorded more than 1,000 suspected and confirmed Ebola cases in the central African country.

Among them are 10 deaths confirmed to be from Ebola and another 223 suspected of being due to the virus, according to an update posted on X by the WHO today, but dated 24 May.

One person is also confirmed to have died from Ebola in neighbouring Uganda with a further six confirmed infections in that country, the update showed.

The United Nations health agency has warned that the true spread of the virus, which is believed to have circulated under the radar for some time, is likely much wider.

The WHO update highlighted, without further explanation, that the case fatality rate to date among the suspected cases stood at 24.6%, while it was 9.8% among the confirmed cases.

That is significantly lower than in the previous 16 Ebola outbreaks to hit the DRC since the disease was first identified there in 1976.

Most of those epidemics were caused by the Zaire strain of Ebola - which typically has a fatality rate of 60-90% and is the only variant for which there are vaccines available.

The less common Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments, is behind the current outbreak.

The case fatality rates in the two previous outbreaks in DRC involving that strain, in 2007 and 2012, ranged from around 30 to 50%.

But the case fatality rate typically evolves and can diminish over the course of an outbreak, as cases are detected quicker and care is provided earlier, Abdi Rahman Mahamud, the WHO emergency alert and response director, explained last week.

"Early referral and early care saves lives," he told reporters.

Senior Vice President for crisis response at the International Rescue Committee, Ciarán Donnelly said it was "hard to overstate the sense of alarm we’re feeling" around the outbreak.

Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, he said there three factors in particular that concern him.

The first is that the disease has spread so widely and had gone undetected for "at least two months", with some reports suggesting "up to four months," as it puts the response already on the back foot.

Secondly, he said eastern DRC is affected by conflict, with different armed groups and the government controlling different territories, which makes a response harder, and it is harder to control the spread of the disease.

And thirdly, he added that the health system in eastern Congo, along with humanitarian capacity, has been significantly degraded by the impact of global funding cuts for humanitarian assistance over the last year.

"So right at the very moment in which the health system and humanitarian actors need to be scaling up we are actually at our lowest levels of funding for several years."

Uganda shuts DR Congo border: health ministry

Uganda has shut its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in a bid to contain the Ebola outbreak that has hit its neighbour, the health ministry announced.

The east African country has recorded seven cases of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola since the outbreak was identified in the DRC on 15 May.

"Uganda is temporarily closing the border with the DRC with immediate effect," health ministry permanent secretary Diana Atwine told reporters.

"The only exceptions are for authorised Ebola response teams, humanitarian operations, food and cargo transportation, and security under strict health screening and monitoring protocols," she said.

Ms Atwine also announced a 21-day quarantine for anyone arriving from the DRC, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and district surveillance teams, and regular checks for pupils at schools near the border.