WHO declares global health emergency over outbreak in Congo and Uganda

The WHO said on

It said the patient visited Ituri and other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province, one of Congo’s most populous provinces and on the border with Ituri.

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but serious and often fatal.

The WHO emergency declaration is intended to encourage donor organizations and countries to take action. According to WHO standards, this demonstrates that the event is serious, that there is a risk of international spread and that a coordinated international response is needed.

The global reaction to previous statements was mixed. When the WHO declared MPox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency in 2024, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies such as diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines quickly to affected countries.

It is difficult to treat a variant of Ebola

Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease for which there are no approved therapies or vaccines. Although more than twenty Ebola outbreaks have occurred in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.

Congo is responsible for all but two cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, the WHO said.

The Bundibugyo virus was first discovered in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second time was in 2012, during an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.

Conflict and migration are complicating efforts to track the outbreak

Director-General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jean Kaseya, said on Saturday that there are still a large number of active cases in the community, especially in Mongwalu where the first cases were reported, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts.”

Violent conflicts with militants, some backed by the Islamic State group, as well as continued population movement due to mining, both within Congo and across the border in Uganda, have also posed major challenges to response efforts.

Officials first reported the spread of the disease on Friday in Ituri province, close to Uganda and South Sudan. On Saturday, the Africa CDC reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths in Congo.

“There are currently significant uncertainties about the actual number of infected individuals and the geographic distribution associated with this event. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links to known or suspected cases,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The two cases in Uganda involve one person who officials said had traveled from Congo and died at a hospital in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and another person who WHO also said had traveled from Congo.

The WHO said the high percentage of positive cases among the samples tested, the spread to Kampala and Uganda and the clusters of deaths in Ituri “all indicate a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently detected and reported, with a significant local and regional risk of spread”.

Outbreak in Congo killed 50 people before it was discovered

Kaseya said slow detection slowed the response and gave the virus time to spread.

“This outbreak started in April. Until now, we do not know the index case,” Kaseya said, using a term for the first detectable case of an epidemic.

“It means we don’t know the extent of this outbreak.”

The earliest known suspected case, a 59-year-old man, developed symptoms on April 24 and died in a hospital in Ituri on April 27.

By the time health authorities were first notified of the outbreak via social media on May 5, 50 deaths had already been recorded, the Africa CDC said.

The WHO said at least four deaths have been reported among health workers who showed Ebola symptoms.

Diagnostics and vaccines are a major problem for Africa

Shanelle Hall, chief adviser to the head of the African CDC, told reporters on Saturday that four therapies were under consideration for the Bundibugyo virus, but a vaccine was not actively being considered.

A bigger problem is that even existing vaccines and therapies for other Ebola viruses are not manufactured in Africa. Africa’s struggle to get vaccines from richer countries during the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled several efforts to increase vaccine production capacity, but resources remain scarce.

Kaseya said the demand for a vaccine for a rare virus like Bundibugyo, which is not as deadly as the Ebola Zaire that was prominent in Congo’s previous outbreaks, is the recurring issue in talks with pharmaceutical companies over vaccine production.

“If we are serious on this continent, we have to produce what we need,” he said.

“We can’t look every day for others to come and tell us what they are doing.”

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