DRC warns no vaccine is available for latest Ebola outbreak as death toll hits 80

A new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has caused numerous deaths and is described by the country’s health minister as having a “very high lethality rate.” The outbreak involves a strain that currently has no vaccine or specific treatment available.

“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,” Samuel‑Roger Kamba said during a press briefing in Kinshasa.

“This strain has a very high lethality rate which can reach 50 percent,” Kamba added.

Earlier on Saturday, ministry officials reported that the death toll had risen to 80, up from 65 the previous day.

The strain has also claimed a life in neighbouring Uganda, officials said, with the victim being a DRC national.

That information followed an announcement late Friday by Uganda’s health ministry that a 59‑year‑old man from the DRC had died in Kampala after being admitted earlier in the week. His body was repatriated the same day.

Tests confirmed the victim in Uganda was infected with the Bundibugyo strain, first identified in 2007.

Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60‑90 percent.

African health officials confirmed the latest outbreak on Friday in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, a region that borders Uganda and South Sudan, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Significant cross‑border population movements in the affected area raise concerns about further spread.

According to Kamba, the first identified case was a nurse who reported to a health facility in the provincial capital Bunia on April 24, exhibiting symptoms consistent with Ebola.

Symptoms of the disease include fever, haemorrhaging and vomiting.

– High risk of spread –

Officials warned on Friday of a high risk of spread, with 65 deaths initially reported in what is the 17th outbreak to hit the DRC.

The ministry later announced that the number of fatalities had risen to “246 suspected cases notified and 80 deaths.”

“It is a large outbreak,” said Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The previous outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever, which has killed some 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years, occurred last August in the central region of the DRC.

That episode resulted in at least 34 deaths before it was declared eradicated in December.

Nearly 2,300 people died in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC between 2018 and 2020.

Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, is a deadly viral disease transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.

According to the World Health Organization, outbreaks over the past half century have shown mortality rates ranging from 25 percent to as high as 90 percent.

The virus spreads from person to person through bodily fluids or exposure to the blood of an infected individual, who becomes contagious only after symptoms appear. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

“Given the uncertainties and severity of the illness, there is concern about the scale of transmission in affected communities,” the WHO stated on Friday as it prepared to airlift some five tonnes of material, including infection prevention gear, from Kinshasa.

Large‑scale transport of medical equipment is a challenge in a country of more than 100 million people, which is four times the size of France and has a poor communications infrastructure.

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