Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo Kills 65 People
The agency warned the threat of wider transmission was high, citing 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths recorded in the DRC.
A deadly Ebola outbreak has erupted in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, African health authorities said, as neighbouring Uganda confirmed a linked fatality that underscored fears the virus could move across borders.
So far, the outbreak has remained concentrated in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, near the frontiers with Uganda and South Sudan, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said.
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The agency warned the threat of wider transmission was high, citing 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths recorded in the DRC.
Uganda’s health ministry said a 59-year-old man from the DRC died in Kampala after being admitted earlier this week. His body was returned to the DRC later that same day.
Laboratory tests confirmed the man had contracted the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no vaccine. Existing vaccines are available only for the Zaire strain, the most lethal form of the virus.
“It is a large outbreak,” said Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Health care workers at a vaccine trial launched at Uganda Hospital
The DRC government has yet to comment publicly on the outbreak in the sprawling central African country, which has a population of more than 100 million.
“The region where it is happening is highly volatile with the humanitarian situation” and cross-border population movements, said WHO emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud.
Still, he said the country has deep experience in responding to Ebola outbreaks.
“With the insecurity, people are crowded together in the city, and since there are so many people in the city, an epidemic like this would be very serious,” Anne-Marie Dive, a resident of Bunia, the main city in Ituri, said by telephone.
