The chief of the World Health Organization said Tuesday he is “deeply concerned about the scale and speed” of the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, as questions swirl over the pace of the response to the epidemic, reports BritPanorama.
The outbreak, driven by the Bundibugyo virus, one of several viruses known as Orthoebolaviruses, is primarily affecting the DRC’s remote northeastern Ituri province, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated.
As of Tuesday, there have been 131 deaths linked to the outbreak, according to the DRC’s health minister, Dr. Samuel Roger Kamba, with more than 500 suspected cases. Ghebreyesus mentioned that 30 cases have so far been confirmed in Ituri province.
In neighboring Uganda, two laboratory-confirmed cases have also been reported in the capital, Kampala, according to WHO.
Amid increasing humanitarian efforts, concerns are mounting over the delay in identifying and tracking the initial cases of the outbreak, particularly considering the DRC’s past experience with Ebola epidemics.
“I’ve been saying the most concerning thing to me has been how much we learned, how quickly we learned it,” said Craig Spencer, a doctor who survived Ebola in 2014. “There’s no doubt that this is probably much worse than what we think right now. I suspect the true case total is much higher than what’s being reported.”
In response to the growing epidemic, the US invoked a public health law on Monday to limit entry into the country from the affected region, just as one US national tested positive for the strain in the DRC. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) criticized this move, stating that “broad travel bans can disrupt lives and economies.”
Ugandan authorities sought to reassure visitors on Tuesday, insisting there has been no local transmission within the country despite the two cases, which the Uganda Tourism Board indicated involved Congolese nationals “who entered Uganda from the DRC.”
Later Tuesday, the State Department warned Americans against all travel to the DRC, South Sudan, and Uganda, and advised them to reconsider travel to Rwanda due to the outbreak in the region.
When did the epidemic start?
The first known suspected case was a health worker, whose symptoms started on April 24, according to WHO. The individual later died at a medical centre in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.
On May 5, WHO received an alert about an “unknown illness” with high mortality in the province. Following an investigation by a rapid response team on May 13, the outbreak was confirmed as caused by the Bundibugyo virus on May 15.
Post-confirmation of the epidemic, Jeremy Konyndyk, former lead for COVID and disaster relief at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), noted that multiple “generations of transmission” must have gone undetected, branding this oversight as a “big, big problem.”
On Sunday, the UN health body declared the epidemic a “public health emergency of international concern,” stating that the high positivity rate and increasing number of cases and deaths indicate “a potentially much larger outbreak.”
Ghebreyesus emphasized that this declaration is unprecedented as it was made prior to convening an emergency committee, which he indicated would take place later Tuesday. “I did not do this lightly,” he remarked.
Ebola is a serious and often fatal disease transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, as per Africa CDC. It can also be spread through contaminated materials or contact with deceased individuals from the disease. Currently, there are no approved treatments or vaccines specific to the Bundibugyo virus.
The situation continues to evolve as authorities and health organizations respond to the outbreak.
