Ebola outbreak in DR Congo kills 80. WHO declares it a global emergency

The World Health Organization on Sunday declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, putting countries that share land borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo at high risk of the virus spreading.

The WHO published a report about this in X.

According to WHO, as of 16 May, 80 probable deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 probable cases had been reported in Ituri province, DRC. One case was reported in the capital Kinshasa, in a person who had returned from Ituri.

In the Ugandan capital Kampala, two unrelated laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease were reported on 15–16 May in people who had travelled to DRC. One of them was fatal.

But the outbreak could actually be much larger. The WHO is calling it an emergency because there is no vaccine for this strain, Ebola-Bundibugyo. The WHO is advising countries neighboring DR Congo to activate their national disaster and emergency management mechanisms, and to conduct border screening and screening on major internal roads.

• The first human case of Ebola virus disease was recorded in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976. The mortality rate during the first outbreaks was as high as 90%.
• Thanks to the advent of the Ebola-Zaire strain vaccine, this figure has now been reduced to almost 40%. The current outbreak is the 17th in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all previous ones, except one, were caused by the Zaire strain.
• The largest outbreak of Ebola virus in terms of the number of infected people occurred in West Africa from 2014 to 2016. The number of victims exceeded 11 thousand. In 2014, Time magazine named the fighters against Ebola "Person of the Year".

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