WHO declares emergency as Ebola kills more than 80 in Congo

A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have been recorded, according to an update issued Saturday by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa).

The Geneva-based World Health Organization announced early Sunday that the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, had been classified as a “public health emergency of international concern,” the second-highest alert level under international health regulations.

The WHO warned that the actual scale of infections and the spread of the disease remain unclear, although it stopped short of declaring a pandemic emergency, the highest alert level introduced in 2024.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said it is preparing a large-scale emergency response, describing the rapid spread of the outbreak as “extremely concerning,” a warning echoed by health authorities.

DR Congo’s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba stated that there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment available for the Bundibugyo strain, adding that the strain has a fatality rate that can reach 50 percent.

The Bundibugyo strain, first identified in 2007, has also resulted in the death of a Congolese national in neighboring Uganda, officials confirmed on Saturday.

Vaccines currently exist only for the Zaire strain of Ebola, first identified in 1976, which carries an even higher fatality rate of between 60 and 90 percent.

Health authorities officially confirmed the latest outbreak on Friday in Ituri province in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the borders with Uganda and South Sudan, according to CDC Africa.

Local civil society representative Isaac Nyakulinda told AFP by phone that people had been dying for the past two weeks, noting the absence of isolation facilities and saying many patients were dying at home, with relatives handling the bodies themselves.

According to Kamba, the first confirmed patient was a nurse who visited a health facility in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, on April 24 while showing symptoms consistent with Ebola.

Symptoms of the disease include fever, vomiting, and haemorrhaging.

Trish Newport, Emergency Programme Manager at MSF, said the speed of infections and deaths, combined with the spread across several health zones and into another country, was deeply alarming. She confirmed that MSF is mobilising medical teams and support staff to the affected areas.

Transporting medical supplies on a large scale remains a major challenge in DR Congo, a country with more than 100 million people and limited communications infrastructure despite being four times larger than France.

Officials warned of a high risk of further spread, marking the country’s 17th Ebola outbreak.

The WHO said there are still major uncertainties regarding the true number of infections and the geographic reach of the outbreak. However, it added that the high positivity rate among initial samples, confirmed cases in two countries, and rising suspected infections indicate the outbreak could be significantly larger than currently reported, with serious local and regional risks.

The previous Ebola outbreak in DR Congo occurred last August in the country’s central region and killed at least 34 people before it was declared over in December.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, between 2018 and 2020, claimed nearly 2,300 lives.

Ebola, which is believed to have originated in bats, can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. Over the past 50 years, outbreaks have recorded mortality rates ranging from 25 percent to 90 percent, according to the WHO.

The virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids or blood from infected individuals, who become contagious only after showing symptoms. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.