GoKawiilThe Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday confirmed an Ebola outbreak in the Northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Officials in Uganda subsequently reported that the deadly hemorrhagic disease had spilled over the border, with one “imported” confirmed case identified in Kampala, the capital.
So far, the DRC has reported 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths, mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones. Although it is now just being reported, the outbreak already ranks around the 10th largest Ebola outbreak to date.
This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC since the virus was discovered in 1976. But unlike almost all of the country’s past Ebola outbreaks, preliminary laboratory results suggest that the current outbreak is not caused by the Zaire Ebola virus strain. Further genetic sequencing is ongoing today to determine the strain causing the illnesses.
There are four virus strains known to cause Ebola disease in humans, and three have caused large outbreaks (Zaire, Sudan, and Bundibugyo). According to an early Reuters report from Uganda, officials said the case there involved the Bundibugyo strain.
Complicated context
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese virologist who co-discovered Ebola and heads the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, told Reuters that finding a different strain than Zaire behind the outbreak could complicate responses, given that current licensed vaccines and treatments were developed against the disease from the Zaire strain.