WHO Emergency Committee to Meet as DRC Ebola Death Toll Rises to 131

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has risen to an estimated 131 from 513 suspected cases, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said Tuesday.

Previous figures from the epidemic, which the World Health Organization has declared an international health emergency, stood at 91 dead out of 350 suspected cases.

The WHO chief said Tuesday he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” which has already spread into neighboring Uganda.

“Early on Sunday, I declared a public health emergency of international concern over an epidemic of Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Tuesday.

A meeting of the WHO’s Emergency Committee is scheduled for later Tuesday to discuss the outbreak, Tedros said.

An emergency committee consists of international experts who provide technical advice and recommendations to the WHO chief.

No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind the latest outbreak and has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past half-century.

Kamba cautioned that the current death toll was an estimate and further research is needed to confirm whether all 131 suspected deaths were caused by Ebola.

The outbreak’s epicenter is in the northeastern province of Ituri on the border with Uganda and South Sudan, whose status as a gold-mining hub leads to frequent cross-border movement.

The virus has already spread into neighboring provinces, as far as 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the identified ground zero and beyond the DRC’s borders.

The Bundibugyo strain has a fatality rate of up to 50 percent and no approved vaccine yet, but the panel of experts meeting Tuesday will discuss vaccine options.

A vaccine named Ervebo, manufactured by Merck, is used for the Zaire strain but has shown evidence of providing some protection against Bundibugyo in animal studies.

“When you have an outbreak with a strain that does not have countermeasures, we are going to advise on the best approach to take,” said Dr. Mosoka Fallah, acting director of the science department at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “We will look at what evidence we have and make a decision.”

A World Health Organization official said six tons of supplies to fight Ebola were set to arrive in the DRC on Tuesday, including personal protective equipment and other medical supplies.

“We have sent 12 tons of supply. An additional six are arriving today. These include personal protective equipment for frontline health workers (and) samples,” said Anne Ancia, WHO Representative in Ituri province.

Meanwhile, Germany is preparing to admit and treat a United States citizen who contracted Ebola in the DRC, the German Ministry of Health told the AFP news agency.

“US authorities have requested assistance from the German government in treating a US citizen who contracted Ebola in Congo,” a ministry spokesperson said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the American had contracted the virus after exposure related “to their work” in the DRC and tested positive late Sunday.