WHO Declares Ebola in DRC, Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, citing more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.

In a social media post, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency but poses a high risk of further spread to neighboring countries.

Health authorities confirmed the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), a rare type of Ebola without approved therapeutics or vaccines. This marks the third BVD outbreak on record, despite more than 20 Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Uganda.

The WHO said the outbreak could be significantly larger than reported, given the high positivity rate of initial samples and the rising number of suspected cases.

The DRC accounts for all but two of the confirmed cases, both reported in neighboring Uganda, the WHO said.

Officials first reported the virus in the DRC’s eastern province of Ituri, near Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.

On Sunday, a laboratory confirmed a case in the major DRC city of Goma, which is under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, health authorities told the AFP news agency.

“A positive case in Goma has been confirmed by tests carried out by the laboratory. It involves the wife of a man who died of Ebola in Bunia, who traveled to Goma after her husband’s death whilst already infected,” Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research, told AFP.

The DRC-Rwanda border closure has put the entire region on high alert, said Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma.

The positive case in Goma demonstrates why Rwanda’s preventive measures were “justified,” Uaykani said.

Uganda confirmed one imported case from the DRC on Saturday, saying the patient died at a hospital in Kampala. The WHO later confirmed a second case in Kampala, adding that the two cases did not appear linked and both patients had traveled from the DRC.

Uganda’s health authorities implemented measures at the hospital where the Congolese man died, said Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soy, reporting from Kampala.

“Health workers at the hospital are testing people, they’re checking for fever, they’re sanitising people and they’re giving them masks,” Soy said.

“Government officials say that they managed to trace people that this man interacted with” and are now monitoring them, she said.

President Yoweri Museveni said “there is no need for alarm, as the situation is under control,” Soy said, adding that “the border with DRC has not been closed yet, but government officials say that they are monitoring all this very closely.”

The DRC-Uganda outbreak poses a public health risk to neighboring countries, the UN health agency said, advising nations to activate disaster and emergency management mechanisms, and implement cross-border screening and screening at major internal roads.

The WHO advised immediate isolation of confirmed cases, restricted national travel only, and no international travel until 21 days after exposure.

It urged countries not to close borders or restrict travel and trade, warning that such measures could lead to unmonitored cross-border movements of people and goods.

The often-fatal and highly contagious virus causes fever, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea, and spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people, contaminated materials, or those who have died from the disease, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.