{"id":336182,"date":"2026-05-17T14:37:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=336182"},"modified":"2026-05-17T14:37:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:07:58","slug":"who-declares-global-emergency-over-rare-ebola-strain-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/17\/who-declares-global-emergency-over-rare-ebola-strain-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO declares global emergency over rare Ebola strain | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An outbreak of Ebola\u00a0in Congo and Uganda was declared a public health emergency of international concern today after greater than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, the WHO said the outbreak doesn’t meet the factors of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised against the closure of international borders.<\/p>\n

But authorities have confirmed the present outbreak is attributable to the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the\u00a0Ebola\u00a0disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines.<\/p>\n

Although greater than 20\u00a0Ebola\u00a0outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is barely the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been reported.<\/p>\n

Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Congo\u2019s eastern province of Ituri, near Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday.<\/p>\n

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The rare and deadly virus has emered again in Uganda and Congo (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.<\/p>\n

Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, each of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.<\/p>\n

Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case it said was imported from Congo, and said the patient died at a hospital in Uganda\u2019s capital, Kampala, and the WHO said that a second case has been reported in Kampala.<\/p>\n

The 2 cases had no apparent links to one another and each patients had travelled from Congo, it added.<\/p>\n

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda\u2019s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people.<\/p>\n

What’s Ebola?<\/h2>\n
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Ebola is rare and severe \u2013 and infrequently proves fatal (Picture: AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The WHO states that Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly generally known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe and infrequently fatal illness in humans.<\/p>\n

It’s transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads within the human population through human-to-human transmission.<\/p>\n

The typical EVD case fatality rate is around 50 per cent. Case fatality rates have varied from 25 per cent to 90 per cent in past outbreaks.<\/p>\n

Ebola spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes).<\/p>\n

An individual infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they develop symptoms.<\/p>\n

Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, infection prevention and control practices, surveillance and call tracing, a great laboratory service, protected and dignified burials and social mobilisation.<\/p>\n

Early supportive care with rehydration and symptomatic treatment improves survival. There isn’t any licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus, but a variety of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.<\/p>\n

The WHO advises using gloves when coping with people infected with Ebola and all the time practising protected sex.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: WHO chief warns there \u2018will likely be more hantavirus cases in the approaching weeks\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Woman prepares $1,000,000 to sue hantavirus passengers who refuse to self-isolate <\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Bill Gates-backed vaccine group warned hantavirus \u2018might be next pandemic\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an online browser that supports HTML5 video An outbreak of Ebola\u00a0in Congo and Uganda was declared a public health emergency of international concern today after greater than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths. In a post on X, the WHO said the outbreak doesn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[5948,23433,9216,3430,395,1026,14819,813],"class_list":["post-336182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-declares","tag-ebola","tag-emergency","tag-global","tag-news","tag-rare","tag-strain","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336185,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336182\/revisions\/336185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}