The World Health Organization declared on Sunday that the Ebola outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda constitutes a public health emergency of international concern after discovering more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.
The World Health Organization said the outbreak did not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency like Covid-19, and advised against closing international borders.
The WHO said on She added that the patient had visited Ituri and that other suspected cases had been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of the most populous regions of Congo and is located on the borders of Ituri.
Ebola is a highly contagious disease that can be transmitted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare but severe and often fatal.
The WHO emergency declaration aims to motivate donor agencies and countries to act. According to WHO standards, this shows that the event is serious, that there is a risk of international spread and requires a coordinated international response.
The global response to previous statements was mixed. In 2024, when the World Health Organization declared a smallpox outbreak in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies such as diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.
A different type of Ebola is harder to treat
Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola that has no approved treatments or vaccines. Although there have been more than 20 Ebola outbreaks in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.
The World Health Organization said Congo recorded all cases except two cases reported in Uganda.
Bundibugyo virus was first detected in the Bundibugyo district of Uganda during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 others. The second time was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
Conflict and migration complicate efforts to track the outbreak
Get weekly health news
Get the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
A large number of active cases remain in the community, especially in Mongowalo, where the first cases were reported, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts,” Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr. Jean Cassia said on Saturday.
Violent conflict with militants, some of whom support ISIS, as well as ongoing population movement due to mining, both within Congo and across the border in Uganda, have also presented a major challenge to response efforts.
Officials first announced the spread of the disease in Ituri County, which is close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa CDC reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths in Congo.
“There are significant uncertainties about the true number of people infected and the geographic spread associated with this event at the present time,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases.”
The two cases in Uganda included a person who officials said had traveled from Congo and died in a hospital in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and another who the World Health Organization said had also traveled from Congo.
The high proportion of positive cases among samples tested, the spread of the disease to Kampala and Uganda and clusters of deaths across Ituri “all point to the possibility of a much broader outbreak than is currently detected and reported, with a risk of significant local and regional spread,” the WHO said.
The Congo outbreak killed 50 people before it was discovered
Slow detection delayed the response and gave the virus time to spread, Cascia said.
“This outbreak started in April. As of now, we don’t know the index case. That means we don’t know how big this outbreak is,” Casilla said, using a term for the first detectable epidemic case.
The first known suspected case was a 59-year-old man who developed symptoms on April 24 and died in a hospital in Ituri on April 27.
The Africa CDC said that by the time health authorities were first alerted to the outbreak via social media on May 5, 50 deaths had already been recorded.
The World Health Organization said at least four deaths had been reported among health care workers who showed symptoms of Ebola.
Diagnostics and vaccines have been a big problem for Africa
Four treatments are under consideration for the Bundibugyo virus, but a vaccine has not been actively considered, Chanel Hall, a senior advisor to the head of the Africa CDC, told reporters on Saturday.
The biggest problem is that even current vaccines and treatments for other Ebola viruses are not manufactured in Africa. Africa’s struggle to obtain vaccines from wealthier countries during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred various efforts to speed up its vaccine manufacturing capacity, but resources remain scarce.
Demand for a vaccine for a rare virus like Bundibugyo, which is not as deadly as the Zaire Ebola virus seen in previous outbreaks in Congo, has been a recurring issue in discussions with pharmaceutical companies about manufacturing vaccines, Cassia said.
“If we are serious about this continent, we need to manufacture what we need,” he said. “We can’t look to others every day to tell us what they’re doing.”
