Workers line up to disinfect their protective equipment at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu during the Ebola outbreak response in Mongbwalu, Ituri province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on 20 May. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda a "public health emergency of international concern," as the death toll and number of confirmed cases continue to rise.
Michel Lunanga/Getty Images
- The WHO raised the risk assessment for the Bundibugyo Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo to very high.
- The DRC has recorded 82 confirmed cases, seven confirmed deaths, and almost seven hundred and fifty suspected cases.
- An experimental antiviral drug called Obeldesivir could be used to prevent contacts from developing the disease.
The World Health Organisation has raised the risk of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to “very high”.
The strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, was declared an emergency of international concern by the WHO on Sunday.
“We are now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level,” WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
So far, 82 cases have been confirmed in Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, 177 suspected deaths and almost 750 suspected cases. The situation in Uganda is stable, with two cases confirmed in people who travelled from the DRC, one of them fatal, Tedros said.
“The potential of this virus spreading rapidly is high, very high, and that changed the whole dynamic,” said Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO Director of Health Emergency Alert and Response Operations.
Measures taken in Uganda, including intense contact tracing and cancellation of a mass gathering, appear to have been effective in stemming the spread of the virus, Tedros said.
READ | Ebola returns to the DRC: 246 cases, 65 deaths and a war zone blocking containment
A US national who was working in Congo has been confirmed positive and transferred to Germany for care.
“We are also aware of reports today about another American national with a high-risk contact who has been transferred to the Czech Republic,” Tedros added.
The WHO’s chief scientist, Sylvie Briand, said an antiviral treatment called Obeldesivir could be used among Ebola contacts to prevent them from developing the disease.
Obeldesivir is an experimental oral Covid antiviral drug from Gilead Sciences.
“This is a promising treatment drug, but it has still to be implemented under a very, very strict protocol,” Briand said.
English (US) · 