WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda a global health emergency – National
The World Health Organization declared an outbreak of Ebola caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda as a public health emergency of global concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.
The WHO said the outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised the closure of international borders.
The WHO said a lab-confirmed case had been reported in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from where the disease broke out in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting the possibility of a wider spread. It said the patient visited Ituri and other suspected cases have been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of the most populated areas in Congo and borders Ituri.
Ebola is highly contagious and can be acquired through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.
The WHO's emergency declaration is intended to encourage donor organizations and countries to take action. According to WHO standards, it indicates that the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread and requires a coordinated international response.
Global response to previous announcements has been mixed. In 2024, when the WHO declared the outbreak of smallpox in Congo and other places in Africa as a global emergency, experts at the time said that nothing was done to get things like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines quickly to the affected countries.
It is difficult to treat different strains of Ebola
Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola virus that has no approved treatments or vaccines. Although there have been more than 20 outbreaks of Ebola in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been discovered.
Congo accounts for all but two of these cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, the WHO said.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda's Bundibugyo region during the 2007-2008 violence that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second was in 2012, during the outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
Conflict and migration make an effort to track the outbreak
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The Director-General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jean Kaseya said on Saturday that the highest number of cases are still in the community, especially in Mongwalu, where the first cases were reported, “the worst is the efforts to search and follow the trail of contact with people.”
Violent conflicts and insurgencies, some supported by the Islamic State group, and frequent displacement of people due to mining, both within Congo and across the Ugandan border, have also posed a major challenge to response efforts.
Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Ituri province, near Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa CDC reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths in Congo.
“There is significant uncertainty in the actual number of people infected and the geographical spread associated with this phenomenon at present. In addition, there is limited understanding of the links between epidemics and known or suspected cases,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The two Ugandan cases involve one person who officials say came from the Congo and died in a hospital in Uganda's capital, Kampala, while the other WHO said he had also left the Congo.
The WHO said the high percentage of positive cases among the samples tested, the prevalence in Kampala and Uganda and the death tolls across Ituri “all point to a much larger outbreak than currently detected and reported, with a high local and regional risk.”
The Congo outbreak killed 50 before it was discovered
Kaseya said the low availability delayed the response and gave the virus time to spread.
“This outbreak started in April. So far, we don't know the index case. It means we don't know the extent of the outbreak,” said Kaseya, using the term for the first available case of the epidemic.
The first known suspected case, a 59-year-old man, developed symptoms on April 24 and died at a hospital in Ituri on April 27.
When health authorities were first notified of the social media outbreak on May 5, 50 deaths had been recorded, the Africa CDC said.
The WHO said at least four health workers who showed symptoms of Ebola have died.
Diagnostics and vaccines have been a major problem in Africa
Shanelle Hall, who is the principal adviser to the head of the Africa CDC, told the media on Saturday that there are four treatment methods being studied for the Bundibugyo virus, but no vaccine is being studied.
The biggest problem is that even the existing vaccines and treatments for other Ebola viruses are not made in Africa. Africa's struggle to get vaccines from rich countries during the COVID-19 crisis has spurred various efforts to speed up its vaccine-making capacity, but resources remain scarce.
Kaseya said the need for a vaccine against a rare virus such as Bundibugyo, which is not as fatal as Ebola Zaire which was prominent in previous outbreaks in Congo, has been a constant issue in discussions with pharmaceutical companies regarding the production of vaccines,
“If we are serious about this continent, we must produce what we need,” he said. “We cannot every day ask others to come and tell us what they are doing.”
