Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, Uganda declared an international health emergency
The Bundibugyo strain, which killed more than 80 people, has no specific treatments or vaccines
The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Sunday over an outbreak of an Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed more than 80 and for which there is no vaccine.
Fears of further spread grew when a laboratory on Sunday confirmed a case in the major eastern DRC city of Goma, which is controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia.
A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have so far been reported, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said in an update on Saturday.
“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 travelled to Goma after her husband’s death whilst already infected,” Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), told reporters.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep disquiet as the reported cases rise.
“I determine that the epidemic constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” Ghebreyesus posted to social media, albeit adding that as yet it “does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency” as defined by existing WHO international health regulations (IHR).