Record Ebola outbreak in Central Africa and international emergency to contain the rare strain
In its latest epidemiological update released this weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed an unprecedented outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Central African region, after the organization counted nearly 500 confirmed cases in a few weeks.
This record high and rapid epidemiological linkage prompted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to officially declare this crisis a "public health emergency of international concern", with the aim of mobilizing regional and global efforts to catch up with the escalating epidemic curve and prevent it from becoming a full-blown health catastrophe reminiscent of previous epidemiological crises on the continent.
The detailed figures included in the WHO report showed that infections were mainly concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 452 laboratory-confirmed infections were recorded, resulting in 82 deaths since the pandemic was monitored.
The virus spread geographically to neighboring Uganda, which also recorded 19 confirmed cases and two deaths, bringing the combined regional total of the two countries to 471 infections and 84 deaths, and the WHO warned of the seriousness of the statistical indicators, which recorded a sharp increase of 100 infections and 20 deaths in just 24 hours, reflecting the speed of the spread of the infection and its cross-border transmission.
Warnings of a catastrophic scenario
Jason Asher, director of the Center for Epidemiological Prediction and Analytics at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), warned during a press conference against laxity in taking strict health measures.
Asher explained that the center's mathematical modeling suggests that the current outbreak could reach a catastrophic scale similar to the historic record epidemic that hit West Africa between 2014 and 2016 and killed more than 11,000 people, stressing that this frightening scenario is made possible by the population density in the hotspots and the weak health infrastructure.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has launched a $518 million (€449.5 million) continental emergency response plan for the next six months.
According to the joint founding statement issued by the two organizations, this huge budget aims to fund active epidemiological surveillance activities, expand laboratory testing in remote areas, and provide infection prevention supplies, with a focus on supporting field hospitals and protecting frontline medical staff.
"Bundiboggio" is the rare unvaccinated strain
The current wave is linked to the rare strain of the Ebola virus, Bundibugyo, which was officially declared on May 15 in the Ituri province of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after mysterious deaths were recorded in a number of health workers.
Epidemiologists' field assessments indicate that the virus was circulating silently and under the radar for several weeks before it was detected, taking advantage of its long incubation periods and cross-border commercial movement.
The extreme risk of this outbreak, based on the scientific descriptions issued by the World Health Organization, lies in the lack of any vaccines or specific treatments approved so far against the "Bondiboggio" strain, unlike other strains that possess licensed vaccines, where the current control mechanisms rely entirely on strict isolation and contact tracing, due to the speed of lethality of the virus that causes deadly hemorrhagic fever that is transmitted directly through contact with infected body fluids.