The World Health Organization has declared a “public health emergency of international concern” after an outbreak of a rare strain of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo spread to the capital Kinshasa and to neighbouring Uganda.The WHO said the spread of the suspected Bundibugyo strain of the deadly haemorrhagic fever had probably begun without detection in March. There are no virus-specific therapeutics or vaccines for that strain.
Eight cases of the disease, which has a fatality rate of between 30 and 90 per cent, had been confirmed in laboratories by Saturday. A further 80 suspected deaths and 246 suspected cases have been reported across at least three health zones in the Ituri Province of north-eastern DR Congo.
The high positivity rate of initial samples collected, confirmation of cases in both Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and Kinshasa, and clusters of deaths across the DR Congo province of Ituri “all point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported,” the WHO said.