Geneva, May 18, (dpa/GNA) – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday, declared an international public health emergency due to an Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda.
The outbreak has been linked to the rare Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola distinct from the more widespread Zaire variant. Containment efforts have been further complicated by the absence of a vaccine or specific treatment for the disease.
There have been 88 reported deaths and 336 suspected cases linked to the outbreak in Congo so far, including a man who died in neighbouring Uganda, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The WHO said Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, determined “that the Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), but does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency.” All 10 of Congo’s neighbouring countries are at high risk, according to the WHO. The declaration is intended to put neighbouring countries on heightened alert and mobilize support from the international community, the agency said.
So far, the outbreak has mainly affected Congo’s north-eastern Ituri Province, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, but there are fears it might be spreading elsewhere.
A man from Congo is known to have travelled by public transport to neighbouring Uganda, where he died of Ebola in a hospital in the capital Kampala. According to the Africa CDC, the man’s body was subsequently transported back to Congo, again by public transport and buried there.
Another infected person travelled from Congo to Uganda, according to the WHO. Meanwhile, one case has already been confirmed in Congo’s capital Kinshasa, which is located more than 1,500 kilometres from Ituri Province.
The WHO noted that the area most severely affected is facing a fragile security situation, a humanitarian crisis and large-scale population movements. Consequently, there is a significant risk of the virus spreading locally and regionally, it said.
Rwanda, another neighbouring country, closed its border with Congo on Sunday morning. According to the Africa CDC, investigations are currently under way to determine where exactly the outbreak originated, in order to trace the chain of infection.
The authority’s director, Jean Kaseya, said the first cases are believed to have occurred as early as the third week of April. Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Saturday it was preparing a large-scale response to the outbreak in Congo’s Ituri Province. “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,” MSF Emergency Programme Manager Trish Newport said in a statement. “In Ituri, many people already struggle to access healthcare and live with ongoing insecurity, making rapid action critical to prevent the outbreak from escalating further,” she added.
Ebola is a contagious and life-threatening infectious disease. The virus is transmitted through physical contact and contact with bodily fluids. According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, the Ebola mortality rate can be as high as 90% if infected individuals are not treated immediately.
More than 11,000 people died during an outbreak of the Zaire variant in West Africa in 2014 and 2015.
The most recent Ebola cases in Congo were reported in September, when 45 people died in the province of Kasaï in the south-west of the country.
GNA