An American doctor is among the newly confirmed cases in an outbreak of a rare variant of the Ebola virus in Congo, a Congolese official said on Monday, as deaths have surpassed 100 in two provinces and details emerged about the government's delayed response.
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, medical director of the Congolese National Institute of Bio-Medical Research, told The Associated Press that the doctor is among the cases in Bunia, capital of Ituri province. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. As of Monday, there were over 300 suspected cases and 118 deaths in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, along with two deaths in neighboring Uganda.
Bundibugyo Strain Spread Undetected
The Bundibugyo strain spread undetected for at least a few weeks, health experts and aid workers said. Cases have now been confirmed in Bunia, North Kivu's rebel-held capital of Goma, Mongbwalu, Butembo and Nyakunde. Because early tests looked for the wrong strain of Ebola, false negatives resulted in lost weeks of response time, according to Matthew M. Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Policy and Politics. He criticized the Trump administration's earlier decision to withdraw from the WHO and make deep cuts in foreign aid, saying it gutted the surveillance system meant to catch viruses early.
Delayed Response
Congo's health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba, said the government was opening three treatment centers. The WHO sent a team of experts and supplies. The original response was delayed after the first person died from the virus on April 24 in Bunia, and the body was repatriated to the Mongbwalu health zone, a mining area with a large population. When another person fell ill on April 26, samples were sent to Kinshasa for testing. On May 5, the WHO was alerted of about 50 deaths in Mongbwalu, including four health workers. The first case was confirmed on May 14, and the Bundibugyo strain was confirmed the next day.
Esther Sterk with the Medecins Sans Frontieres aid group said the situation is worrying and evolving quickly, noting that detection was quite late, which is often the case with Ebola outbreaks.
Exposure of Americans
CBS News reported that at least six Americans have been exposed to Ebola in Congo, citing anonymous sources. The AP has not independently verified this. U.S. health officials said the risk to Americans was low. The CDC issued travel advisories urging Americans in Congo and Uganda to avoid people with symptoms like fever, muscle pain and rash, and said it was imposing appropriate measures at ports of entry.
Rare Variant of Ebola
Ebola is highly contagious via bodily fluids and often fatal. The Bundibugyo virus is a rare variant, detected only twice before: in Uganda in 2007-2008 (149 cases, 37 deaths) and in Congo in 2012 (57 cases, 29 deaths). The Africa CDC chief, Dr. Jean Kaseya, said he is in panic mode due to a lack of medicines and vaccines, but candidate treatments are expected in coming weeks.
Humanitarian Crisis
Eastern Congo long has grappled with a humanitarian crisis and armed groups that have killed dozens and displaced thousands in Ituri. A U.N. official in Bunia said no one fully understands the crisis's severity. Staff have been asked to work from home and avoid physical contact. Ituri has over 273,000 displaced people. Rwanda closed its land border with Congo on Sunday, except for holders of international flight tickets.
