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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Ebola a global emergency following the death of over 80 Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) put the total death toll at 88 and reported 336 suspected cases in an update issued on Saturday.
The WHO said on Sunday that the outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola constituted a “public health emergency of international concern” — the second-highest level of alert under international health regulations.
It warned that the true scale of the case count and spread was unclear, but stopped short of declaring a pandemic emergency, the highest alert level introduced in 2024.
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,” DR Congo’s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said.
“This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50 percent.”
Officials said on Saturday that the Bundibugyo strain, which was first identified in 2007, has also killed a Congolese national in neighbouring Uganda
However, vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain of the virus, which was first identified in 1976, and has a higher fatality rate of 60-90%.
A local civil society representative, Isaac Nyakulinda, told AFP that there are no isolation centres for Ebola patients.
“There is nowhere to isolate the sick. They are dying at home, and their bodies are being handled by their family members,” he said.
DR Congo’s health minister said patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in Ituri’s provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola.
“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.
According to AFP, the current Ebola outbreak is the 17th outbreak to hit the DRC.
The WHO 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 virus spreads from person to person through bodily fluids or exposure to the blood of an infected person, who becomes contagious only after symptoms appear. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.
