Health Authorities Warn Of Increased Ebola Transmission Risks Following Regional Outbreak

A Congolese health worker checks the temperature to screen a traveller at the Grande Barrier border following confirmation of an Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, at the border crossing point between Congo and Rwanda, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Image credit: Reuters/Arlette Bashizi

Challenges

"All countries need to be vigilant, and SA is no different from all the other countries," said Karim.

"As soon as we identify a case, we’ve got to ensure we limit the number of contacts because it is very likely that we are going to see several more cases occur.”

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention made the PHECS declaration on the recommendations of its Emergency Consultative Group (ECG), which Karim chairs.

Karim said: “The ECG carefully reviewed the epidemiological evidence, regional risk profile, and operational realities surrounding this outbreak.

“The interconnected nature of transmission between DRC and Uganda, combined with the challenges posed by insecurity and cross-border movement, requires urgent coordinated continental action.”

Karim also explained that this particular strain of Ebola, Bundibugyo, is difficult to test in a lab, which means that the confirmed cases may be higher.

Unlike the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, Bundibugyo has no approved virus-specific therapeutics or vaccine.

“It should be noted that this is a big problem in that we are dealing with a situation where probably the first cases we just had over four or six weeks ago.

"And we didn’t even know about any of this until last week, and the big challenge has been that because it’s a new strain of Ebola, Bundibugyo strain, and it is hard to diagnose," said Karim.

Continental concerns

While Congo has experience tackling Ebola, the late detection and quick spread of this outbreak have alarmed health experts.

According to Reuters, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a public health emergency of international concern because of the high risk the disease could spread further beyond DRC's borders after two cases were confirmed in Kampala, the capital of neighbouring Uganda.

Africa CDC also expressed its concern about the high risk of regional spread due to intense cross-border population movement, mining-related mobility, insecurity in affected areas, weak infection prevention and control measures, community deaths occurring outside formal healthcare systems, and the proximity of affected areas to Rwanda and South Sudan.

Reuters reports that there have been 105 suspected Ebola deaths and 393 suspected Ebola cases across nine health zones in Ituri province, with eight cases confirmed by laboratory testing, the Congo Health Cluster said on Monday.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals and causes symptoms that can include high fever, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.