Health officials investigating the Ebola outbreak sweeping through the Democratic Republic of the Congo say they cannot rule out that the virus is mutating, as confirmed cases surpass 4,000, according to The Guardian.
Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told a press briefing that the agency is working with the World Health Organization to study the virus's genetic makeup.
“"To check if there is no additional issue, or maybe if the virus is not mutating," Kaseya said of the joint studies planned with WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to The Guardian.”
A rare and harder-to-treat strain
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus, a species first identified in Uganda in 2007 that has historically caused somewhat lower fatality rates than the more familiar Zaire strain, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Crucially, existing Ebola vaccines and treatments were developed and licensed for the Zaire strain, leaving responders reliant on early supportive care rather than targeted therapeutics for this outbreak.
The DRC's national public health institute has recorded 3,973 cases and 1,801 deaths as of 4 August, figures that Kaseya said had since climbed past 4,000, according to The Guardian. The outbreak was first confirmed on 15 May, though officials suspect the virus may have been circulating since January.
By scale, this is now the largest Ebola outbreak in DRC's history and the second-largest ever recorded globally. Kaseya noted the outbreak already has eight times more cases and six times more deaths than were recorded 11 weeks into the 2014-16 West Africa epidemic, which eventually killed at least 11,000 people, The Guardian reported.
Escalating the response
Africa CDC has concluded that current containment measures are falling short. Kaseya said contact tracing has identified only around ten contacts per confirmed patient, far below the roughly 40 expected, according to The Guardian's reporting. In response, Dr Wessam Mankoula, the agency's acting head of emergency preparedness, said teams would move away from reactive contact tracing towards an 'active case search', sending community health workers from door to door to ask households directly whether anyone is unwell.
The outbreak is centred on Ituri province, a mining region in eastern DRC that has for years been destabilised by armed conflict, and has since spread to North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo provinces. Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 cases before bringing its own outbreak under control. Insecurity and population displacement in the affected region continue to complicate case detection, treatment and vaccination efforts, a pattern consistent with earlier Congolese outbreaks in which attacks on health workers and facilities disrupted response operations.
Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever spread through contact with the body fluids of infected people, and can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, organ damage and internal bleeding. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in May, a designation reserved for events judged to pose a serious risk of spreading across borders.
Why it matters for Europe
While no cases linked to this outbreak have been confirmed outside Africa, European governments have been watching closely given past experience with imported Ebola cases during the 2014-16 West Africa epidemic. The UK has pledged up to £20 million to support communities affected by the outbreak, and European public health bodies have echoed WHO guidance urging vigilance among travellers returning from the region, even as officials stress that the immediate risk to Europe remains low.
This article is free to read. It always will be — no paywall, no account, no tracking.
