An Ebola outbreak within the Democratic Republic of Congo has left 65 people dead and certain infected 246 others, prompting an urgent response from health authorities.
The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly within the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones situated within the distant northeastern province of Ituri, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on X.
“4 deaths have been reported amongst laboratory-confirmed cases. Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, pending confirmation,” the agency said, referring to the capital of Ituri province, near the Ugandan border.
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Preliminary test results detected Ebola in 13 to twenty samples.
Testing suggests the presence of a less lethal non-Ebola Zaire strain of the virus, with sequencing ongoing to further characterize the strain, the agency wrote. The Ebola Zaire strain has been outstanding in past outbreaks in Congo.
Results confirming the strain are expected inside 24 hours, the Africa CDC said.
Last yr, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Congo had stockpiled treatments, including about 2,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine. Though that vaccine is effective against the Ebola Zaire strain of the virus, it said.
Ituri is especially vulnerable to outbreaks because of its remoteness and limited road infrastructure, making contact with the nation’s capital, Kinshasa — which is greater than 1,000 kilometres away —extremely difficult.
Africa CDC also raised alarms over the chance of rapid spread because of significant population movement, insecurity in affected areas, gaps in touch tracing, difficulties in implementing control measures and its proximity to Uganda and South Sudan.
Health authorities from those countries are expected to convene on Friday to co-ordinate and implement measures to contain the spread alongside key partners, including UN agencies and other countries.
“The meeting will deal with immediate response priorities, cross-border coordination, surveillance, laboratory support, infection prevention and control, risk communication, secure and dignified burials, and resource mobilization,” it said.
This outbreak comes five months after one other deadly spread of the Ebola virus within the central African nation, which led to 43 deaths and the seventeenth because the virus was discovered within the country in 1976.
FILE: A medical examiner prepares to manage a vial of a vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola during a trial at Mulago Referral Hospital, in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 3, 2025.
AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda
A two-year Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020 in eastern Congo killed greater than 1,000 people. An earlier outbreak that swept across West Africa between 2014 and 2016 killed greater than 11,000 people, which led to more cases and deaths than all others combined. It also spread across countries, starting in Guinea after which moving across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Ebola is extremely contagious and is passed to humans through contact with wild animals akin to fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates, based on the WHO, after which spreads amongst humans primarily through bodily fluids akin to vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare but severe and sometimes fatal.
The typical fatality rate amongst infected individuals is around 50 percent, though rates have varied from 25 to 90 per cent in past outbreaks, based on the health agency.
Current research suggests that fruit bats are the natural hosts of the Ebola virus.
— With files from The Associated Press
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