The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the latest Ebola outbreak in Central Africa a public health emergency of international concern after hundreds of suspected infections and deaths were reported in Congo and Uganda.
WHO said on Wednesday that there were currently 600 suspected Ebola cases and 139 suspected deaths, though officials warned the true scale of the outbreak could be significantly higher.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak involved the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola but clarified that it did not amount to a global pandemic emergency.
Following an emergency committee meeting in Geneva, Tedros said: “The risk of the epidemic is high at the national and regional levels and low at the global level.”
He said WHO’s immediate priority was identifying all transmission routes in order to contain the disease and provide treatment to affected communities.
The outbreak has alarmed health experts because the virus appears to have spread unnoticed for several weeks in conflict-affected and densely populated areas.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, WHO’s emergencies chief, warned that widespread violence in the region had complicated surveillance and response efforts.
The outbreak has been confirmed in the northern Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, where WHO has verified 51 cases so far. Uganda has also confirmed two infections in Kampala, including one fatality involving travellers from Congo.
WHO additionally confirmed that an American national working in Congo had tested positive for the virus and had been transferred to Germany.
Health experts believe the outbreak may have started months earlier, with investigations tracing the first suspected death to 20 April.
An investigative mission carried out jointly by Congo’s provisional government and the WHO on 12 May collected 13 samples, eight of which tested positive for Ebola.
Tedros said detecting the Bundibugyo strain had proven difficult in the conflict-hit region, while the disease’s early symptoms closely resemble malaria and other endemic illnesses, making diagnosis more challenging.
The Bundibugyo strain is transmitted through direct contact with infected bodily fluids and has an estimated fatality rate of about 40 per cent, according to the WHO.
The outbreak comes only a few years after the 2018–2020 Ebola epidemic caused by the Zaire strain, which killed nearly 2,300 people in the same region.
At present, there is no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain. WHO experts said two possible vaccines are being considered, although development and clinical testing could take up to nine months.
