The World Health Organisation has issued a stark warning that the Ebola outbreak devastating the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading faster than international health authorities can contain it, as the death toll passes 220 and case numbers exceed 1,000 — raising fears of a deepening global health emergency.
WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered the sobering assessment while addressing the African Union, telling member states: “We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us.” The outbreak, driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola — which kills up to 50 per cent of those infected and for which no approved vaccine currently exists — has already been declared a global public health emergency. It is spreading at the fastest rate since the catastrophic 2014 outbreak that produced more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths across West Africa.
The majority of cases and fatalities have been centred on Bunia, a city in eastern DRC, where all flights have been grounded in an attempt to slow transmission. Experts nonetheless believe the virus may already have crossed into neighbouring countries, with South Sudan identified as being at particular risk. Among those killed are three Red Cross volunteers who are thought to have contracted the disease while handling infected bodies.
The response on the ground has been complicated by community resistance. Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital has come under attack from people attempting to retrieve the bodies of relatives who died from Ebola, according to the hospital’s medical director Dr Richard Lokodu. Burials of those who have died from the virus are highly infectious and must be managed by specialist medical teams. Some factions in the region have been spreading the belief that Ebola is a hoax and directly confronting Red Cross volunteers, while others in local communities have taken to using megaphones in villages to urge residents to follow official health guidance.
Concerns reached Europe briefly when two humanitarian aid workers who had recently returned from Uganda — a man and a woman in northern Italy — developed symptoms consistent with the virus. Both subsequently tested negative, though the episode underlined the anxiety surrounding potential spread beyond Africa. Meanwhile, an American doctor who contracted the virus while working in the affected region, identified as Dr Peter Stafford, was transported to Germany for treatment. US airports have since increased passenger screenings for signs of infection.
Scientists at the University of Oxford are working to develop a vaccine targeting the Bundibugyo strain, but have warned it will take a further two to three months before it can be tested on humans, meaning patients in Africa are unlikely to receive the drug within the next six months. Symptoms follow the pattern common to all Ebola variants — beginning with fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting and diarrhoea before progressing in severe cases to internal bleeding and organ failure. Patients can carry the virus for up to 21 days before symptoms appear, the point at which experts believe they become infectious.
The United Kingdom has committed up to £20 million to help contain the outbreak and has activated a Returning Workers Scheme, under which healthcare professionals arriving back from affected regions are monitored for symptoms. However, infectious disease experts have warned that Britain remains underprepared. Dr Derek Sloan of St Andrews University, who also speaks for UK-Med and Healthy World, Secure Britain, said the outbreak was a reminder that no country could treat such crises as someone else’s problem. “This outbreak, along with recent Hantavirus cases on a cruise ship and meningitis infections in the UK, shows how important it is that we stay vigilant and use effective public health tools to protect our populations,” he said. “Infectious disease outbreaks such as these in our interconnected world cannot be dismissed as someone else’s problem. These examples show how important it is to maintain this expertise and underline the need to preserve funding for global health and international aid.”
