Global Pulse

分类： health

  • New Ebola outbreak in DR Congo: What we know

    New Ebola outbreak in DR Congo: What we know

    The World Health Organization has officially designated the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), amid rising death tolls and growing warnings of cross-border spread across East Africa. As of the latest official update from Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba, the outbreak has been linked to 91 suspected deaths and approximately 350 suspected infections, with most cases affecting adults aged 20 to 39 and over 60% of cases recorded among women. To date, only a small number of suspected cases have received confirmatory laboratory testing, meaning most official counts remain preliminary.

    The epicenter of the outbreak is located in Mongbwalu health zone, northeastern Ituri province, a mineral-rich region bordering Uganda and South Sudan marked by constant population movement tied to artisanal gold mining. Large swathes of the province are also destabilized by ongoing violence from multiple armed factions, creating significant security barriers that slow the deployment of response teams and limit access to affected communities. The outbreak’s first officially recorded case was a nurse who sought care in Ituri’s capital Bunia on April 24, but local authorities were not alerted to the unusual cluster of high-mortality illness until May 5, when four healthcare workers died within four days in Mongbwalu. Delays in reporting were compounded by local community beliefs that the disease was a “mystical illness” or curse caused by witchcraft, leading many sick residents to seek treatment at religious prayer centers rather than formal medical facilities, allowing the virus to spread undetected. Initial symptoms of the Bundibugyo Ebola strain also mirror common illnesses like influenza and malaria, further delaying timely identification and isolation of cases.

    Alarmingly, the virus has already spread beyond Ituri’s borders. One suspected case has been recorded in Goma, a major eastern DRC urban hub in North Kivu province that has been controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group since early 2023. Additionally, one confirmed Ebola case and one death have been recorded in Uganda, involving two Congolese travelers who crossed into the country from the DRC. No secondary local transmission clusters have been reported in Uganda to date, but the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that neighboring East African nations face a high risk of further spread.

    A key complicating factor in the response is that the outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccines or targeted antiviral treatments currently exist. All licensed Ebola vaccines are only effective against the Zaire strain, which has caused the largest recorded Ebola outbreaks in history. The Bundibugyo strain was first identified in 2007, when it caused a small outbreak in Uganda, and a second outbreak occurred in the DRC in 2012, with historical mortality rates ranging between 30% and 50%. Without pre-existing medical countermeasures, all current containment efforts rely on rapid case detection, isolation of infected people, rigorous contact tracing, and widespread adherence to protective hygiene measures to cut chains of transmission.

    The DRC has a long history of managing Ebola outbreaks, with this event marking the 17th recorded outbreak in the country since the virus was first co-discovered by Congolese virologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe in 1976. Even so, experts warn the current outbreak carries unique and severe risks. “It’s an outbreak that will spread very rapidly, all the more so because it has broken out in a densely populated province,” Muyembe, now head of the DRC’s national infectious disease research institute, told Agence France-Presse. If all currently suspected cases are confirmed, the outbreak will rank as the seventh-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded across all strains, and the second-largest ever recorded involving a non-Zaire strain. Over the past 50 years, Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people across Africa. The DRC’s deadliest outbreak on record occurred between 2018 and 2020, when Zaire strain Ebola killed nearly 2,300 people across 3,500 confirmed cases. The most recent outbreak before the current event killed 45 people between September and December 2023, according to WHO data.

  • At least six Americans exposed to Ebola in DR Congo, US media report

    At least six Americans exposed to Ebola in DR Congo, US media report

    A growing Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been designated a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization, triggering global alerts as health authorities race to contain the spread of a strain with no approved countermeasures. Multiple sources close to the situation have confirmed to CBS News, the United States partner of the BBC, that at least six American citizens have been exposed to the virus within DRC borders.

    Of the six exposed individuals, one has already begun showing characteristic Ebola symptoms, while three others are classified as having had high-risk exposure. Health officials have not yet confirmed whether any of the group have developed active infections. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced it is facilitating the safe evacuation of a small cohort of directly affected American nationals, but has declined to confirm the exact number of people being moved.

    According to the latest official data collected by WHO, the outbreak, centered in DRC’s Ituri province, has already been linked to 336 suspected cases and 88 confirmed deaths. The current outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a variant for which no licensed vaccines or targeted antiviral treatments have been approved for widespread use. Beyond DRC’s borders, the CDC has confirmed two cases and one fatality in neighboring Uganda, marking the first cross-border spread of the current outbreak.

    U.S. officials are working to arrange transportation for the exposed American group to a secure quarantine facility, senior sources told health news outlet STAT. The outlet further reports that unconfirmed plans under consideration would move the group to a U.S. military base in Germany for monitoring, though no final decision has been announced. During a press briefing held Sunday, CDC officials declined to respond to direct questions about the affected U.S. citizens, but emphasized that the overall risk of widespread Ebola transmission within the United States remains low. In line with the escalating risk, the U.S. State Department has issued a Level Four travel advisory – its highest warning level – urging all U.S. citizens to avoid non-essential and essential travel to DRC entirely.

    While WHO has designated the outbreak a PHEIC, the agency confirmed the event does not yet meet the criteria to be classified as a pandemic. Still, WHO officials have issued stark warnings that the actual scope of the outbreak is likely far larger than current detected and reported case numbers, with substantial risk of further local and regional spread across central Africa.

    The 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak remains the deadliest recorded event since the virus was first discovered in 1976, with more than 28,600 confirmed infections and 11,325 deaths across multiple countries in West Africa and beyond, including the U.S., United Kingdom, and Italy.

    Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized that without targeted vaccines or effective treatments, adherence to basic public health protocols is the most critical line of defense. He specifically highlighted the risk of transmission during traditional community funeral practices, which drove widespread transmission in the early stages of the 2014-2016 outbreak, when communities frequently handled the bodies of deceased loved ones during washing and burial rituals. “We don’t want people infected because of funerals,” Kaseya told BBC World Service’s *Newsday* program.

    WHO has issued formal guidance to DRC and Uganda, the two countries with confirmed cases, calling for reinforced cross-border health screenings to stop the virus from expanding into new territories. The agency has also urged all neighboring countries to immediately enhance outbreak preparedness and surveillance capacity, including expanded monitoring at health facilities and community-level tracking. In response, neighboring Rwanda has already announced it will tightening screening protocols along its shared border with DRC as a proactive precautionary measure.

    Ebola is a rare but extremely severe viral infection that carries a high mortality rate. Four known species of Ebola virus can cause human outbreaks, and the current strain is the Bundibugyo variant. Historically, Bundibugyo outbreaks have recorded an approximately 30% mortality rate among confirmed cases.

    Transmission occurs between humans through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, including blood, vomit, and other secretions. Symptoms develop between 2 and 21 days after exposure, beginning with flu-like signs such as fever, headache, and fatigue. As the infection progresses, patients develop vomiting, diarrhea, organ failure, and in some cases, internal and external bleeding. Outbreaks typically originate when an initial human patient contracts the virus from an infected wild animal host, most commonly fruit bats. While effective vaccines exist for the more common Zaire Ebola strain, no comparable products are approved for use against Bundibugyo.

  • Congo health minister announces 3 Ebola treatment centers in Ituri amid ongoing outbreak

    Congo health minister announces 3 Ebola treatment centers in Ituri amid ongoing outbreak

    DAKAR, Senegal – As a rare and deadly Ebola outbreak continues its spread across the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and spill over into neighboring Uganda, global and national health authorities have ramped up emergency responses, marking one of the most pressing public health crises in Africa this year. During an official visit to the Ebola-impacted Ituri region Sunday evening, Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba announced the launch of three new dedicated Ebola treatment centers to expand strained care capacity in the hard-hit area. Standing in Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital and largest urban center, Kamba acknowledged that existing local healthcare facilities are already overwhelmed by a surge of patients showing Ebola symptoms, but emphasized that the new facilities will boost the country’s ability to care for infected people and slow transmission. The World Health Organization had formally designated the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) – the WHO’s highest level of global public health alert – earlier the same day, following weeks of rising case counts. As of the announcement, officials have recorded more than 300 suspected Ebola cases, with 88 confirmed fatalities in the DRC and two additional deaths in Uganda, where the virus has crossed the shared border. While the epicenter of the outbreak remains Ituri, suspected cases have already been documented as far as Kinshasa, the DRC’s national capital, and Goma, the largest city in the country’s eastern region, raising alarms about potential wider spread across Central Africa. In a separate post to the social platform X Sunday, the WHO Regional Office for Africa confirmed that a joint 35-member expert team from the global health body and the Congolese Ministry of Health has already deployed to Bunia, carrying 7 tons of critical emergency medical supplies and protective equipment to support response efforts. Ebola is a highly contagious viral pathogen that spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, vomit, and semen. While the disease is relatively rare, it causes severe, often fatal organ damage and bleeding in a majority of untreated cases. What makes the current outbreak particularly alarming for public health experts is that it is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola variant that was only confirmed as the source of this outbreak this past Friday. No officially approved vaccines or targeted therapeutics currently exist for this specific strain, creating a critical gap in response capacity. Prior to 2024, the Bundibugyo variant has only been detected two other times in recorded history: first in Uganda’s Bundibugyo District during a 2007–2008 outbreak that sickened 149 people and killed 37, and again in a 2012 outbreak in the DRC’s Isiro region that recorded 57 cases and 29 deaths. Speaking to Sky News Sunday, Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged the urgent gaps in the global response, saying, “Currently I’m on panic mode because people are dying, I don’t have medicines, I don’t have vaccine to support countries.” Kaseya added that he has convened an emergency meeting of all global public health and aid partners to advance access to experimental candidate vaccines and therapeutics, with the goal of rolling out limited supplies to impacted areas in the coming weeks. The WHO’s PHEIC designation is only triggered when an outbreak meets three strict criteria: it poses a serious enough threat to global health to require coordinated action, it carries a significant risk of international spread across borders, and it demands a unified, cross-country response. Global health leaders hope the declaration will accelerate funding commitments from donor nations and spur rapid action from pharmaceutical partners to make experimental treatments available to frontline teams. With more than 20 previous Ebola outbreaks recorded across the DRC and Uganda over the past half century, health authorities have well-established protocols for containing viral spread, but the lack of targeted tools for the rare Bundibugyo variant has created an unprecedented challenge for the current response.

  • Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship arrives in the Netherlands

    Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship arrives in the Netherlands

    In a conclusion to a high-stakes global health scare that triggered alerts across international public health networks, the cruise ship impacted by a deadly hantavirus outbreak has finally entered the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to undergo full professional disinfection. The MV Hondius, operated by Dutch tour firm Oceanwide Expeditions, docked at Rotterdam on Monday morning carrying only 25 crew members and two on-board medical staff, after all passengers had been disembarked at previous stops across the Atlantic.

    Witnessed by an Associated Press reporter on-site, people on the vessel’s deck were all wearing face coverings as the cruise ship was guided into port by a tugboat and a Dutch police escort vessel. Dutch health authorities have confirmed that all crew members will begin mandatory quarantine immediately after the ship docks.

    The outbreak, which marks the first confirmed hantavirus incident on a commercial cruise ship, has claimed three passenger lives to date, including a Dutch couple that public health investigators trace as the first index cases, who were believed to have contracted the virus during a pre-cruise visit to South America. In total, the outbreak has been linked to at least 11 suspected infections, nine of which have received official laboratory confirmation.

    After passengers began showing symptomatic infections, the ship sailed for six days from the Canary Islands, where all remaining passengers were escorted off the vessel by medical teams in full-body personal protective equipment. Passengers were then placed on repatriation flights to more than 20 different countries, where they entered mandatory quarantine to prevent further community spread. As of the latest updates, 18 American passengers remain under active observation in specialized U.S. healthcare facilities equipped to manage high-risk infectious diseases, while Canada’s Public Health Agency has already confirmed one positive hantavirus case among the four Canadian repatriated passengers from the ship.

    According to Oceanwide Expeditions, none of the 25 crew and two medical staff remaining on the voyage to Rotterdam have developed any symptoms of hantavirus infection. The Dutch Ministry of Health noted last week that crew members who cannot arrange immediate repatriation to their home countries will complete their quarantine period within the Netherlands. Around two dozen passengers and crew from the vessel have already entered quarantine in the Netherlands after arriving on repatriation flights over the past two weeks.

    Once all personnel have disembarked the MV Hondius, the vessel will undergo a full decontamination process following strict Dutch national public health protocols. In a written update to the Dutch parliament, the ministry explained that specialized protective measures have been planned for cleaning teams to eliminate any risk of infection, meaning disinfection staff will not be required to enter quarantine after completing their work. Public health officials will conduct a full inspection of the vessel before it is cleared to resume commercial sailings.

    Genomic sequencing conducted by France’s Pasteur Institute, completed on a sample taken from an infected French passenger, confirmed that the virus detected is the Andes strain of hantavirus, which is already known to circulate in South America. Researchers found no evidence of new mutations that would increase the virus’s transmissibility between humans or make it more dangerous than known circulating strains.

    Despite the fatal outbreak, the Dutch company that owns the MV Hondius has stated it does not expect to make any changes to its scheduled operations. The vessel is still slated to depart on an Arctic cruise from Keflavik, Iceland, on May 29, following inspection and decontamination.

  • Hantavirus-hit cruise ship nears end of voyage, to dock in Rotterdam

    Hantavirus-hit cruise ship nears end of voyage, to dock in Rotterdam

    A polar expedition cruise ship that triggered international concern following a deadly hantavirus outbreak is preparing to conclude its disrupted journey at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday, bringing an end to weeks of uncertainty for global health authorities. The MV Hondius, operated by Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, is scheduled to dock between 10 a.m. local time and midday, with only 27 people remaining on board: 25 skeleton crew members and two dedicated medical staff, all of whom are currently asymptomatic and under constant health monitoring.

    The vessel first made global headlines when three passengers died from complications of hantavirus, a rare zoonotic pathogen with no licensed vaccine or targeted antiviral treatment. As cases mounted and concerns over human-to-human spread grew, the World Health Organization moved quickly to calm public fears, emphasizing that the outbreak did not represent the emergence of a new pandemic similar to COVID-19. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed on May 12 that there was no evidence of an emerging large-scale outbreak, though he warned that the virus’ multi-week incubation period meant additional cases could still surface among people who were exposed during the voyage.

    As of the latest official counts compiled by Agence France-Presse, hantavirus has been confirmed in six patients, with one additional probable case recorded. A seventh asymptomatic person in Canada has returned a preliminary positive test result, which is still pending final confirmation.

    The crisis unfolded after the ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a planned expedition through remote South Atlantic islands, scheduled to conclude in Cape Verde. When cases were first detected, the voyage was thrown into chaos, sparking diplomatic negotiations as multiple nations debated whether to allow the vessel to dock. Cape Verde declined to accept the ship, leaving it anchored off the capital Praia while three infected passengers were evacuated to Europe by air. Eventually, Spain granted permission for the vessel to anchor off the Canary Islands, a decision that drew fierce pushback from the regional government of the Atlantic archipelago.

    On May 10, the ship reached the Canary Islands, where more than 120 passengers and non-essential crew were evacuated and repatriated to their home countries or to the Netherlands, the nation under which the vessel is flagged. Among those evacuated, a 65-year-old French woman developed symptoms during her repatriation flight and was admitted to a Paris hospital in critical condition with a confirmed hantavirus infection. Two other passengers – one Dutch national and one British national – were airlifted directly to the Netherlands for urgent hospital care. Dutch officials now report both are in stable condition, with the British patient well enough to return home to complete self-isolation. All other evacuated passengers who entered the Netherlands have tested negative for the virus; some remain in quarantine in the country, while others have already returned to their home nations.

    Those remaining on board when the ship docks on Monday represent a range of nationalities: 17 crew from the Philippines, four from the Netherlands (including two crew and the two medical staffers), four from Ukraine, one from Russia and one from Poland. All will enter quarantine either at port facilities or in private accommodation after disembarkation. The body of a German passenger who died during the outbreak will also remain on the ship until docking is complete.

    Late Sunday, the WHO reaffirmed its official risk assessment for the outbreak, classifying it as “low risk.” In a statement, the organization noted that while additional cases may still occur among people exposed before public health measures were put in place, the risk of further community transmission will drop significantly once all passengers and crew have disembarked and appropriate control measures are implemented. After docking, the MV Hondius will undergo a comprehensive deep cleaning and disinfection process, with preparations already underway to begin the procedure immediately after the vessel arrives.

    Public health experts note that hantavirus is typically spread through contact with the urine, feces, and saliva of infected rodents, and the pathogen is endemic to parts of Argentina, where the voyage originated. The strain involved in this outbreak is the Andes variant, the only known strain of hantavirus that can transmit between humans, a detail that added to early global concern over the incident.

  • Canadian national health agency confirms 1 positive hantavirus test

    Canadian national health agency confirms 1 positive hantavirus test

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Public health officials in Canada have formally confirmed a positive hantavirus infection in one of four Canadian travelers who recently returned home from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the center of a global outbreak that has already claimed three lives. The confirmation from the Public Health Agency of Canada came one day after British Columbia’s provincial public health department announced the case had initially been classified as a presumptive positive, with final testing pending at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

    In an official public statement Sunday, the national health agency confirmed that only one of the two tested samples from the returning group returned a positive result for the hantavirus. The negative test belonged to the traveling partner of the confirmed case, who is part of the same travel party. Both individuals are a couple in their 70s originally from Yukon, and they are currently receiving care in a Victoria hospital.

    The four Canadian passengers disembarked and returned to British Columbia one week prior to the confirmation. Alongside the Yukon couple, the group includes a second person in their 70s from Vancouver Island, and a 50-something British Columbia native who resides outside of Canada. All four travelers are currently in isolation per public health protocols.

    This newly confirmed Canadian case marks the 10th positive hantavirus infection tied to the MV Hondius outbreak. To date, the outbreak has killed three people, including a Dutch couple that public health investigators identify as the index cases — researchers believe the pair were first exposed to the virus during a stop in South America before boarding the vessel.

    Canadian health authorities have emphasized they are following strict precautionary measures to safeguard the general public. In their statement, the agency noted that the current population-level risk of Andes hantavirus linked to the cruise outbreak remains very low for people living in Canada. As of the update, every confirmed infection connected to the event has been limited to passengers and crew members who were aboard the MV Hondius.

    To support global public health safety, Canada has shared full details of the confirmed case with the World Health Organization, and will continue contributing data to the ongoing international investigation into the outbreak.

  • Africa’s Ebola outbreak public health emergency of int’l concern: WHO

    Africa’s Ebola outbreak public health emergency of int’l concern: WHO

    GENEVA – In an official announcement posted to its website Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) has formally designated the ongoing Ebola outbreak driven by the Bundibugyo virus across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), stopping short of classifying the event as a full pandemic emergency.

    The latest epidemiological data published by the WHO, updated through May 16, 2026, paints a preliminary but concerning picture of the outbreak’s spread. In the DRC’s northeastern Ituri Province, health authorities have recorded eight confirmed Ebola cases, 246 suspected cases, and 80 reported deaths among suspected patients. One additional confirmed case has been detected in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital, marking the virus’s reach into a major urban center far from the original outbreak zone. Neighboring Uganda has also confirmed two cases of Ebola traced back to importation from the DRC, both detected in the Ugandan capital Kampala. To date, researchers have found no clear epidemiological connection between the two Ugandan cases, adding to uncertainties around transmission dynamics.

    Among the most alarming early developments is the death of at least four frontline healthcare workers who treated Ebola patients in affected regions. These fatalities have amplified experts’ concerns about ongoing nosocomial, or hospital-based, transmission of the virus, a risk that can quickly overwhelm under-resourced local health systems.

    The WHO emphasized that large gaps remain in understanding the full scope of the outbreak. Significant uncertainty surrounds the actual total number of infections, the full geographic range of virus circulation, and the transmission links connecting confirmed and suspected cases. Compounding these challenges is the absence of any globally approved, targeted therapeutics or vaccines specifically designed to protect against or treat infection with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

    To coordinate a unified global response, the WHO announced it will convene an independent Emergency Committee in the near term to develop evidence-based guidance for response measures for affected nations and the international public health community.

    WHO officials warn that early indicators suggest the outbreak is far larger than current detected and reported case counts indicate. Key red flags include a high positivity rate among initial patient samples, the confirmation of cases in two capital cities (Kinshasa and Kampala), and a steady upward trend in both suspected cases and deaths across Ituri Province. Multiple structural factors are amplifying the risk of widespread spread: persistent insecurity in affected regions that disrupts outbreak surveillance and response, an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has left millions of vulnerable people without access to adequate health care, high cross-border and internal population mobility, the location of current outbreak hotspots in urban and semi-urban areas, and an extensive network of unregulated informal health care facilities that lack infection control infrastructure.

  • WHO declares international emergency as Ebola outbreak kills more than 80 in DR Congo

    WHO declares international emergency as Ebola outbreak kills more than 80 in DR Congo

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has already claimed more than 80 lives across two countries. This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak the Central African nation has faced, with public health experts warning of extreme risks of regional and cross-border spread amid a lack of targeted medical countermeasures.

    The first confirmed case in Goma, a major population hub in eastern DRC currently held by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, was verified by national laboratory testing on Sunday, amplifying global alarm over the outbreak’s trajectory. According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), as of Saturday, the outbreak has been linked to 88 confirmed deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever.

    Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), detailed that the Goma patient is the widow of an Ebola victim who died in the northeastern city of Bunia. The woman, already infected when she traveled to Goma after her husband’s death, represents the first confirmed case in a major urban center, raising fears of wider community transmission.

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the emergency declaration via the social platform X, noting that while the outbreak qualifies as a PHEIC— the global body’s second-highest alert level under the International Health Regulations (IHR), with a pandemic classified as the highest— it does not yet meet the formal criteria for a pandemic. The WHO emphasized that critical gaps remain in understanding the outbreak’s full scale, writing, “There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread.”

    A core challenge facing response teams is the nature of the strain itself. Unlike the more common Zaire Ebola strain, for which effective vaccines are widely available, the Bundibugyo strain— first identified in 2007— has no licensed vaccine or specific antiviral treatment. DRC Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba highlighted the strain’s extreme virulence, noting that its fatality rate can reach 50 percent. By comparison, the Zaire strain has a recorded fatality rate of 60 to 90 percent, but the availability of vaccines and treatments has drastically reduced mortality in recent outbreaks.

    The current outbreak was first confirmed in Ituri Province, a northeastern region bordering Uganda and South Sudan, on August 15. Local civil society representative Isaac Nyakulinda told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that communities in the affected area have been struggling to cope for weeks. “We’ve been seeing people die for the past two weeks,” Nyakulinda said. “There is nowhere to isolate the sick. They are dying at home and their bodies are being handled by their family members, increasing the risk of further transmission.”

    Congolese health officials traced the outbreak back to an index case, a nurse who first presented with Ebola symptoms at a Bunia health facility on April 24. Early symptoms of Ebola include fever, vomiting, and haemorrhaging, progressing to severe organ failure and internal bleeding in advanced cases. The virus, which is thought to originate in bat populations, spreads between humans through direct contact with bodily fluids or infected blood; victims only become contagious once symptoms develop, and the incubation period can last up to 21 days.

    On Saturday, officials confirmed that the outbreak has already crossed international borders, with one Congolese national dying of the disease in neighboring Uganda. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders), the leading medical aid group working on the ground, is mobilizing for a large-scale emergency response, but has flagged multiple barriers to effective action.

    “The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” said Trish Newport, MSF’s Emergency Programme Manager. The DRC’s poor transport and communications infrastructure, a longstanding challenge for public health responses, has slowed the movement of critical medical supplies to affected regions. The country, home to more than 100 million people and four times the size of France, has limited paved road networks in remote rural areas where the outbreak first took hold.

    Most of the early transmission has occurred in hard-to-reach areas, meaning only a small share of suspected cases have been confirmed via laboratory testing. Even so, the WHO says early indicators point to a far larger outbreak than currently documented: high positivity rates from initial tested samples, cross-border transmission, and rising numbers of suspected cases “all point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.”

    This outbreak comes just months after DRC declared an end to its previous Ebola outbreak in the same region, which was declared eradicated in December 2024 after killing 34 people. Since Ebola was first identified in 1976, the virus has killed roughly 15,000 people across Africa, despite major medical advances in prevention and treatment over the past decade. The 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC remains the deadliest in the country’s history, killing nearly 2,300 people before it was contained.

  • How worrying is the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo?

    How worrying is the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo?

    An evolving Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has triggered urgent global concern, after weeks of undetected spread in a conflict-ravaged region that complicates containment efforts. Health officials warn that this outbreak, driven by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola species, carries unique challenges that put the global public health community at a critical turning point.

    As of current reporting, nearly 250 suspected cases and 80 confirmed deaths have been recorded, with significant uncertainty around the true scope of transmission due to the late detection of the outbreak. The World Health Organization has designated the event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) — a designation that does not predict a COVID-19-style global pandemic, but signals the complexity of the situation requires coordinated cross-border action.

    “The overall global risk posed by this Ebola outbreak remains extremely low,” experts emphasize, echoing a reality seen even during the 2014-2016 West African disaster, the largest Ebola outbreak on record that infected more than 28,600 people and killed over 11,000, which only resulted in three cases in the United Kingdom, all among volunteer healthcare workers. But for the affected region and global public health, the stakes remain high.

    Unlike more common Ebola strains that have proven vaccines and targeted treatments, Bundibugyo Ebola has only caused two prior outbreaks, recorded in 2007 and 2012, with mortality rates ranging between 30% and 50% of those infected. No vaccines or antiviral therapies have been formally approved for this specific strain, though a small number of experimental candidates are available. Even diagnostic testing for Bundibugyo is unreliable: initial test results for this outbreak returned negative for Ebola, requiring advanced laboratory analysis to confirm the rare strain was responsible.

    Prof Trudie Lang, an expert from the University of Oxford, describes Bundibugyo as “one of the most significant concerns” of the current response. Ebola, a zoonotic disease that originates in wild animal populations (primarily fruit bats), spreads to humans through close contact with infected animals, then passes between people via exposure to infected bodily fluids, most often after symptoms develop.

    Symptoms of Ebola emerge between 2 and 21 days after infection, beginning with flu-like indicators including fever, headache and fatigue, before progressing to severe vomiting, diarrhea, organ failure, and in some cases internal and external bleeding. Without approved targeted treatments for Bundibugyo, care relies on optimized supportive care — managing pain, secondary infections, fluid balance and nutrition — with early intervention dramatically improving survival odds.

    The delayed detection of this outbreak is among the most worrying factors. The first confirmed case, a nurse, developed symptoms on April 24, but it took three weeks to confirm an Ebola outbreak was underway. “Ongoing transmission has occurred for several weeks, and the outbreak has been detected very late, which is concerning,” explained Dr Anne Cori of Imperial College London. This delay has put response teams at a disadvantage, with the World Health Organization noting the true number of infections is likely far higher than current reported figures.

    Containment efforts are further complicated by the chaotic context of the outbreak zone: the eastern region of DRC has been torn by ongoing civil conflict, displacing more than 250,000 people from their homes. Most affected communities are located in mobile mining towns, where transient populations move frequently between local communities and across national borders, amplifying the risk of wider spread.

    Despite these steep challenges, experts note that the DRC has accumulated extensive experience responding to repeated Ebola outbreaks over the past two decades. Dr Daniela Manno, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, points out that the national and international response capacity is “significantly stronger today than it was a decade ago,” ahead of the 2014 West African outbreak.

    Core containment strategies focus on rapid identification of infected cases, contact tracing to stop chains of transmission, preventing spread within healthcare facilities where patients are most contagious, and conducting safe burials for victims, as deceased bodies remain highly infectious. The trajectory of the outbreak — whether it is quickly contained or spirals into a large-scale disaster like the 2014-2016 event — will depend entirely on the speed and effectiveness of the current response.

  • WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda

    WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda

    On Sunday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the highest global alert level for an ongoing Ebola outbreak spanning the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda, following a surge in suspected infections that has already claimed 88 lives. As of the latest official count, more than 300 suspected cases have been documented across the two East-Central African nations.

    In a public update posted to the social platform X, the WHO moved quickly to clarify that the outbreak does not qualify for a pandemic-level classification on par with the COVID-19 crisis, and explicitly recommended against nations closing international borders to contain the spread.

    Ebola is a severe, highly contagious viral disease that spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, including blood, vomit and semen. While outbreaks of the disease remain relatively rare, infections frequently result in death for affected patients. What makes the current crisis particularly challenging for global health authorities is that it is driven by the Bundibugyo variant — a rare strain of Ebola for which no approved vaccines or targeted treatments currently exist.

    According to WHO data, the overwhelming majority of cases are concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with only two confirmed cases detected across the border in Uganda. The outbreak was first officially reported last Friday, originating in the DRC’s eastern Ituri Province, a border region adjacent to both Uganda and South Sudan. By the following day, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had logged 336 suspected cases and 87 confirmed deaths.

    Ugandan health authorities confirmed their first imported case from the DRC on Saturday; that patient later died in a Kampala hospital, and a second case was shortly after confirmed in the capital. WHO officials noted that the two Ugandan cases have no known epidemiological links to one another, and both patients had recently traveled from the DRC.

    Tedros acknowledged deep uncertainties surrounding the full scope of the crisis, telling reporters: “There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases.”

    This is only the third documented outbreak of the Bundibugyo variant in recorded history. The strain was first identified during a 2007-2008 outbreak in Uganda’s Bundibugyo District, which infected 149 people and killed 37. The second outbreak occurred in 2012 in Isiro, DRC, where 57 cases were reported and 29 people died from the infection. More than 20 Ebola outbreaks of various strains have occurred across the DRC and Uganda in modern history.

    The WHO’s declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, or PHEIC, is formally intended to accelerate international action and mobilize funding, supplies and coordination from donor nations and global aid agencies. But the move has drawn scrutiny amid a mixed track record for past emergency declarations. When the organization declared mpox outbreaks across the DRC and other African nations a global PHEIC in 2024, public health experts criticized the global response for failing to rapidly deliver critical supplies including diagnostic tests, therapeutics and vaccines to affected regions.