The Ebola Bundibugyo virus outbreak in Africa has led to over 1,354 infections and 401 deaths across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. Health officials are actively monitoring for potential spread into new regions within the DRC. In Uganda, a child has died from Marburg virus, a disease similar to Ebola that causes hemorrhagic fever.
Recent reports indicate an increase of 26 cases and 22 deaths in the eastern DRC provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu. Contact tracing efforts are now underway in the adjacent, previously unaffected provinces of Tshopo and Haut-Uele to identify individuals who may have been exposed.
In Tshopo, authorities are seeking individuals who had contact with a pregnant woman who succumbed to Ebola in Ituri on June 27. Her body was transported to Kisangani in Tshopo before her diagnosis was known.
Two individuals who had been isolated for testing in Ituri and subsequently fled to Haut-Uele province have been apprehended. One of these individuals has tested positive for Ebola, while the other awaits confirmatory results. Both have been returned to Ituri, and health teams are working to identify anyone they may have encountered in Haut-Uele.
Humanitarian organizations are enhancing health system preparedness in South Sudan, despite no confirmed Ebola cases there, due to the country’s mobile populations and porous borders with the DRC. The International Medical Corps, for example, is supporting 80 facilities, where over 53,200 screenings have been conducted and 314 patients treated, including 110 with confirmed Ebola.
Both the DRC and Uganda officially declared the outbreak on May 15, though it is thought to have started earlier.
In Uganda, health officials have confirmed one case of Marburg in a young child who died in the western district of Kyegegwa. No contacts of this child have shown symptoms, and no further cases have been identified. Similar to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, there is currently no vaccine available for Marburg.
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