Deadly Ebola outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, WHO declares

An Ebola epidemic in Africa has become a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Sunday (May 17).

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported more than 390 suspected Ebola cases and over 100 deaths in the outbreak, Dr. Jean Kaseya, the director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told BBC News on Monday. Two additional cases have also been reported in Uganda.

This particular outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, one of three species of virus known to spark large Ebola disease outbreaks. There are no licensed therapeutics or vaccines for Bundibugyo virus. However, prompt medical care to treat people's symptoms and stabilise their vitals can improve survival, according to the WHO.

The last two outbreaks of the Bundibugyo virus had case fatality rates ranging from 30% to 50%.

"We have more than 100 people already passed on, and we don't have a vaccine, we don't have medicine available to support," Kaseya told BBC News.

"This is my biggest worry because we need to see how to stop the transmission and we are working with the government of DRC and the government of Uganda to stop the transmission of this outbreak," Kaseya added.

At least six Americans were exposed to the virus while in the DRC, although it's unclear at this time whether any of them are infected, CBS News reported.

The outbreak doesn't meet the criteria for a pandemic, as COVID-19 did in 2020, according to the WHO. However, in its Sunday statement, the WHO described the outbreak as "extraordinary" and warned that it is potentially much larger than currently reported.

The WHO declaration indicates the outbreak has a high risk of cross-border spread and could require international cooperation to contain. It also enables the WHO to issue guidance about how countries should address the issue.

Ebola is an often fatal disease that spreads from animals, such as fruit bats and chimpanzees, to humans; people can get infected after close contact with the bodily fluids of infected animals. Ebola can also spread from person to person via contact with infected bodily fluids. Early symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache and muscle pain, which can make it difficult to distinguish from other common diseases, like malaria.

A healthcare worker was the first known suspected case and fatality in the current outbreak; their symptoms started on April 24. In total, at least four healthcare workers have died during the outbreak so far, highlighting gaps in control measures and the potential for health facilities to amplify the disease, according to the WHO.

Lab testing confirmed the virus behind the outbreak to be Ebola on May 15. Cases in the DRC have been reported across three different areas in the Ituri Province in the northeast of the country, which borders Uganda. The two confirmed cases in Uganda affected people who had recently traveled from the DRC.

Factors such as the DRC's humanitarian crisis, high population movement and its large network of informal healthcare facilities compound the risk of the disease spreading, the WHO cautions. The same factors came into play during a large Ebola epidemic that occurred in the eastern DRC between 2018 and 2020. That epidemic resulted in more than 3,300 confirmed cases and 2,299 deaths, but it was driven by the Zaire ebolavirus — a viral species for which there are vaccines.

There is ongoing conflict in the Ituri province, restricting where disease surveillance teams can travel, limiting the deployment of rapid response teams and compromising the secure transport of lab samples, according to the WHO. Health officials also fear that the disease could spread to even more countries in the region, with the DRC's neighboring countries considered to be at high risk. To the north and east, those countries include the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.

"The event requires international coordination and cooperation to understand the extent of the outbreak, to coordinate surveillance, prevention and response efforts, to scale up and strengthen operations and ensure ability to implement control measures," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, said in the statement on Sunday.