The World Health Organization’s director-general has expressed alarm at the speed and scale of the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and convened an emergency meeting in Geneva to coordinate the response.
Health authorities say the outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no widely accepted vaccine exists. Cases are emerging in remote, often insecure parts of eastern DRC, slowing laboratory confirmation and complicating contact tracing and treatment.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told national television that authorities have recorded roughly 131 deaths and about 513 suspected cases so far, while noting that the community deaths reported have not all been definitively linked to Ebola. Earlier reports last week cited 91 probable deaths among some 350 suspected cases.
Several cases are concentrated in northeastern Ituri and North Kivu provinces near the Uganda border, including cities such as Bunia and Butembo. One case has been reported in Goma, the North Kivu capital, which experienced seizure by the M23 rebel group last year. The affected area is a gold-mining region with frequent instability, adding to the response challenges.
Uganda has confirmed two cases in Kampala among people who traveled from the DRC, with one of those two individuals reported to have died. Separately, Germany said it was preparing to receive and treat an infected US doctor after a US request, citing shorter flight times and German experience treating Ebola; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already announced the infection and the plan to transfer the patient.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, told the World Health Assembly he did not take that step lightly and said he was ‘‘deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic.’’ He identified Ituri as the epicenter and said about 30 cases there have been laboratory-confirmed.
The WHO emergency panel is expected to discuss supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers and evaluating possible vaccine options. Several newer vaccines exist against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, but none are currently recognized as proven against Bundibugyo. Before this event, only two Bundibugyo outbreaks had been recorded, in 2007–08 and 2012.
Ebola virus disease, first identified in 1976, is transmitted primarily through direct contact with bodily fluids of symptomatic patients or the deceased. It can cause severe bleeding, organ failure and death; past outbreaks have shown fatality rates from roughly 25% to 90% depending on strain and circumstances. Bats are thought to be a natural reservoir.
This is the DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak. The country experienced a particularly deadly epidemic from 2018 to 2020 that claimed nearly 2,300 lives. A more recent outbreak from September to December of last year caused 45 deaths, according to the WHO.
Health officials warn that remoteness, insecurity and limited lab capacity could worsen the situation unless international support, protective equipment, testing capacity and coordinated containment measures are rapidly deployed.