The World Health Organization declares a state of emergency: a rare strain of Ebola virus has broken out in Congo and Uganda.

Written by Mohamed Ragab

The World Health Organization has officially declared a public health emergency of international concern, following the detection of a new and alarming outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda.

Although the UN health agency confirmed that the current situation has not yet reached the standards of a full-blown pandemic, it strongly warned of extremely high risks to neighboring countries, as a result of documented cases of international transmission of the disease across land borders in the past few days.

The exceptional danger of this outbreak lies in the fact that it is caused by a rare strain of the Bundibugyo virus, which is completely different from the traditional Zaire strain that caused most of the previous epidemics in the region.

The World Health Organization explained that this situation is a complex medical challenge, as there are not yet any approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo strain, depriving medical staff of vital means of immunization and making control of the virus dependent solely on isolation and monitoring measures.

Ebola outbreak 

The main outbreak has been concentrated in Ituri province in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically in the areas of Bunia, Rwambara and Mongbwalo.

According to official data, eight laboratory-confirmed cases have been recorded, along with two hundred and forty other suspected cases, while the number of suspected deaths has reached about eighty.

The organization expressed concern that the actual size of the outbreak may be much larger than the reported figures, given the high rate of positive initial laboratory tests and the increasing number of daily reports.

The acute virus is no longer confined to its place of origin, as it has begun to spread geographically at an accelerated rate; the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, has recorded a confirmed case of a person returning from the infected Ituri province.

Meanwhile, the infection crossed land borders to reach the heart of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, which recorded two confirmed cases arriving from Congo, one of which resulted in death, proving the seriousness of the virus’s transmission via travelers and vital land transport routes.

Limiting the spread

As part of its efforts to curb the spread of the disease, the World Health Organization has issued crucial advice to governments, urging neighboring countries to activate national emergency management mechanisms and intensify screening operations on land routes and shared crossings.

However, the organization strongly warned against making decisions to close borders or restrict travel and trade out of fear, stressing that such restrictions could backfire and push the population to rely on informal crossing and smuggling routes that lack any health control.

On the individual preventive level, the agency stressed the need for the immediate isolation of any confirmed case and the daily and careful monitoring of contacts.

The organization recommended that contacts or those infected be completely prevented from traveling internationally, except in specialized medical evacuations, while imposing strict restrictions on their local movement and preventing them from leaving the country until twenty-one days have passed since the date of their last direct exposure to the virus, which is the period that represents the incubation period of the deadly disease that is transmitted through direct contact with infected body fluids.