The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an international public health emergency following a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has already claimed more than 80 lives.
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccine currently exists.
Concerns over regional spread intensified after laboratory tests confirmed a case in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, an area controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia.
According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases have been recorded so far.
Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research, said the confirmed Goma case involved the wife of a man who died from Ebola in Bunia.
“She travelled to Goma after her husband’s death while already infected,” Muyembe said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the growing number of infections and uncertainty surrounding the outbreak were deeply concerning.
“I determine that the epidemic constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” Tedros said, while noting that the outbreak has not yet been classified as a pandemic.
The WHO has issued its second-highest global alert level and warned that the true scale of infections may be far greater than current figures suggest.
“There are significant uncertainties regarding the actual number of infected persons and the geographic spread,” the organisation said.
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) described the rapid spread of the virus as “extremely concerning” and said it was preparing a large-scale emergency response.
DRC Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said the Bundibugyo strain has a fatality rate that can reach 50%.
Uganda has also reported a death linked to the outbreak, prompting authorities there to postpone the annual Martyrs’ Day pilgrimage, which typically attracts thousands of worshippers from eastern Congo.
Health officials said the outbreak was first confirmed in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, near the borders with Uganda and South Sudan.
Authorities believe the first patient was a nurse who sought treatment in Bunia on 24 April after developing Ebola-like symptoms, including fever, vomiting and haemorrhaging.
The WHO warned that limited testing capacity and poor infrastructure in remote areas of the DRC could mean many more infections remain undetected.
The current outbreak is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC. The country’s deadliest outbreak, between 2018 and 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people.
Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, spreads through contact with bodily fluids or blood from infected individuals. People become contagious only after symptoms develop, and the incubation period can last up to 21 days.