Africa’s leading public health authority announced a fresh Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, with the disease claiming 65 lives and resulting in 246 suspected cases in the remote Ituri province.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that health officials are currently examining whether this outbreak is linked to the Ebola Zaire strain, which is notorious for being the most lethal and recognizable form of the virus, or if it involves a different variant.
In a related development, Uganda reported an Ebola-related fatality involving a Congolese national. Authorities indicated that the case was imported from Congo, raising concerns about cross-border transmission.
The outbreak is primarily affecting the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones in eastern Congo. This region, situated near the borders of Uganda and South Sudan, poses a potential regional transmission threat due to factors such as mining-related travel, inadequate infrastructure, and ongoing security issues.
Health workers clad in protective gear are attending to Ebola patients within isolation tents, as seen in Beni, Congo, on July 13, 2019. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP)
Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal disease spread through bodily fluids including blood, vomit and semen. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and internal bleeding.
The Africa CDC said only four of the deaths have so far been laboratory confirmed, while testing and sequencing efforts continue to determine the exact strain involved in the outbreak.
Initial tests suggested the outbreak may not involve the Ebola Zaire strain, which was responsible for Congo’s devastating 2018-2020 epidemic that killed more than 1,000 people.
Health workers walk with a boy suspected of having the Ebola virus at a treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. (Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it sent a response team to the region last week to help local officials investigate the outbreak and collect samples.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Congo has a “strong track record” responding to Ebola outbreaks and announced the agency is releasing $500,000 in emergency funding to support containment efforts.
Health authorities said Congo has stockpiles of Ebola treatments and approximately 2,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, though officials cautioned the vaccine is only effective against the Ebola Zaire strain and not against Sudan or Bundibugyo variants.
A health worker sprays disinfectant on a colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. (Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)
This marks Congo’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified in the country in 1976.