Ebola: 139 suspected Ebola deaths, numbers expected to rise-WHO

The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday there were 600 suspected cases of Ebola and 139 suspected deaths.

WHO added that the numbers are expected to rise, given the time the virus circulated ‌before the outbreak in Congo and Uganda was detected.

The Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the virus was a public health emergency of international concern but not a pandemic emergency.

Tedros said the WHO Emergency Committee meeting on Tuesday in Geneva, confirmed the latest Ebola outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain.

“The risk of the epidemic is high at the national and regional levels and low at the global level.’’

“Our absolute priority now is to identify all the existing chains of transmission that will then enable us to really define the scale of the outbreak and be able to provide care.’’

Chikwe Ihekweazu, WHO emergencies chief, said the outbreak has alarmed experts because it has been able to spread for weeks undetected across a densely populated area ravaged by widespread armed violence.

A 2018-2020 outbreak of the Zaire strain of Ebola in the same region was the second deadliest on record, killing nearly 2,300 people.

According to WHO, the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals, has an average fatality rate of around 40 per cent.

Breaking down the figures in this outbreak, the WHO said 51 cases had been confirmed in Democratic Republic of Congo’s northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.

Uganda has also informed the WHO of two confirmed cases in the capital, ‌Kampala, including ⁠one death among two individuals who travelled from Congo to Uganda.

A U.S. citizen who was working in Congo has also been confirmed positive and has been transferred to Germany, the WHO said.

WHO experts said that they suspected the outbreak likely started a couple of months ago, with the first suspected death reported on April 20, investigations were ongoing.

On May 12, the provisional government along with the WHO sent an investigation team where they collected samples. Eight out of the 13 samples were confirmed as Ebola.

Tedros highlighted difficulty in detecting the rare strain through testing, due to the conflict-hit environment, this added to the complexity of limiting ⁠the early onset of the outbreak.

The early symptoms of the disease also resemble many other illnesses endemic in the region, such as malaria, he said.

Tedros ⁠said that it was too early to say whether funding cuts in Congo or the WHO had contributed to any delays in detecting or responding to the outbreak.

There is currently no vaccine available for the Bundibugyo strain.

WHO experts said that two possible vaccines are under consideration , but could take between three to nine months to be developed and need clinical trials.