Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo announced Tuesday that 26 additional suspected Ebola fatalities occurred within a 24-hour period, as the head of the World Health Organization voiced serious alarm about the outbreak’s continued expansion.
The latest deaths push the total number of fatalities linked to the outbreak in eastern DRC to 131. Health officials report 516 suspected cases and 33 confirmed infections within Congo, along with two verified cases in nearby Uganda, according to the daily health bulletin.
The WHO Director-General declared the outbreak of the uncommon Bundibugyo strain a public health emergency of international concern this past Saturday. Health experts are particularly worried because the virus managed to circulate undetected for several weeks throughout a heavily populated region of Congo.
The city of Butembo in Congo’s North Kivu province, home to hundreds of thousands of residents, reported its initial two confirmed infections on Monday, according to the director of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB).
AMERICANS TO BE EVACUATED TO GERMANY
The Ebola virus transmits through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected individuals or animals, producing symptoms including high fever, vomiting, and both internal and external bleeding. The WHO states that Ebola’s average death rate hovers around 50%, though it has ranged from 25% to 90% in previous outbreaks.
“I’m deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” the WHO Director-General stated to World Health Assembly members in Geneva on Tuesday, highlighting the number of infections appearing in urban centers and among medical personnel.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that one American working in Congo tested positive for Ebola.
This person, named Dr Peter Stafford by his Christian mission organization, along with six other Americans who had exposure to the virus, are being transported to Germany for treatment and observation, the CDC reported.
The U.S. State Department announced it has allocated an initial $13 million in foreign aid for immediate response measures to combat the outbreak.
EXPERTS TRY TO DEVELOP TREATMENTS AND VACCINES
Unlike the more frequently occurring Zaire strain of Ebola, no approved virus-specific treatments or vaccines exist for the Bundibugyo strain.
The U.S. is working to create a monoclonal antibody therapy as a possible treatment option, the CDC stated Monday.
A group of experts under WHO leadership will also convene Tuesday to evaluate potential vaccine alternatives for addressing the outbreak.
The U.S. formally withdrew from the WHO in January, a decision President Donald Trump attributed to the organization’s inadequate handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A previous outbreak of the Zaire strain occurring from 2018-2020 in Ituri and North Kivu provinces ranked as the second most lethal on record, claiming nearly 2,300 lives. The international response during that period faced complications from extensive armed conflict in eastern Congo that persists currently.
One Ebola infection has been verified in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which fell under M23 rebel control last year.
