DRC Raises Burial Death Toll to 80 in Ebola Outbreak
The Democratic Republic of the Congo said a burial-linked Ebola outbreak in Ituri province has killed at least 80 people. The toll rose on Saturday from 65 suspected deaths, while nearly 250 suspected cases have been recorded and one death has also been reported in neighbouring Uganda.
Ituri’s Three Health Zones
The outbreak was confirmed on Friday in northeastern Ituri, the country’s seventeenth Ebola outbreak. Health officials said the disease has been confirmed in Bunia, Rwampara and Mongwalu, with the suspected patient zero identified as a nurse who reported to a health facility in Bunia on April 24 with symptoms suggesting Ebola.
Samuel-Roger Kamba, the health minister, said on Saturday, “The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,” and added, “This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50 percent.” The National Institute of Biomedical Research has tested only 13 blood samples so far; eight were positive for the Bundibugyo strain and five could not be analysed because the sample volume was too small.
Uganda Border Risk
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the outbreak could spread rapidly because of high population density and cross-border travel. Ituri borders Uganda and South Sudan, a geography that gives every new case a wider reach than the province’s borders suggest. The outbreak has already crossed into Uganda, where one death has been reported.
Trish Newport, an emergency programme manager with Doctors Without Borders, said, “The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” while Jagan Chapagain, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said, “The evolving epidemiological situation, and the risk of cross-border spread, underscore the need for timely, coordinated and sustained action. Engaging with communities and building trust is essential to ensure people seek care early and help stop the epidemic in its tracks.”
Bundibugyo Strain Response
Doctors Without Borders and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are responding to the outbreak as health workers try to trace suspected cases and contain the spread in eastern Congo. The strain involved was first identified in 2006, and Ebola itself was first identified in 1976; since then, about 15,000 people have died from the disease.
For residents in Bunia, Rwampara and Mongwalu, the immediate risk is not a distant headline but a province-wide response centered on testing, referral and early care-seeking. The next step is the pace of sampling and isolation across the three health zones, because the outbreak’s spread has already outpaced the small number of blood tests completed.
