New Ebola outbreak fuels mounting global alarm as U.S. works to relocate affected Americans
The outbreak was identified as a rare type of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus. Transmitted through bodily fluids, the Ebola virus is highly contagious and often fatal – killing between 30% and 50% of those infected – and causing symptoms such as fever, rash and vomiting, the organization said.
Unlike the classic Ebola virus, Bundibugyo has no approved vaccine or treatment.
What worries health officials and experts about this particular outbreak is that it was detected late.
Most cases are in Congo’s eastern Ituri province, but the disease has since been discovered about 1,000 kilometers away in the capital, Kinshasa, and in neighboring Uganda, meaning authorities do not have a clear idea of the extent of the spread.
Congo closed its land border with Rwanda on Sunday, the State Department announced in a message on X.
“There are currently significant uncertainties about the true number of people infected and the geographic spread associated with this event,” the WHO said in a statement on Sunday.
They also warn that it will be difficult to combat the spread of the virus in a region that has recently seen conflict between the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group, of which the captured city of Goma has also confirmed a case, its local administration said.
“This is scary,” wrote on X Jeremy Konyndyk, who led the Covid-19 response at the United States Agency for International Development, the agency since gutted by President Donald Trump.
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC, told British broadcaster Sky News on Sunday that he was in “panic mode” due to the lack of medicines and vaccines as the death toll rises.
The WHO’s emergency declaration means it supports the efforts of governments and agencies to combat the spread. The WHO Regional Office for Africa said on Sunday that a team of 35 experts from WHO and the Congolese Ministry of Health had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, accompanied by 7 tonnes of emergency medical supplies and equipment.
The U.S. government is assisting with “surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, infection prevention and control, and other outbreak containment efforts,” the CDC said Sunday.
In a call with reporters, Satish Pillai, head of the Ebola response at the CDC, declined to answer repeated questions about affected Americans, saying only that he was “assessing the needs on the ground.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Meanwhile, the association Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Médecine Sans Frontières, said it was “preparing to rapidly scale up our medical response” in the region.
“The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short time, combined with the spread across multiple health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” Trish Newport, MSF’s emergency program manager at MSF, said in a statement.
