The World Health Organization has raised its national risk assessment for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to “very high,” warning that the Bundibugyo strain continues to spread as health teams race to contain infections that may have circulated undetected for weeks.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that the agency now considers the risk “very high” at the national level, “high” at the regional level and “low” globally.
The outbreak, involving a strain for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO on Sunday.
So far, Congolese authorities have confirmed 82 cases and seven confirmed deaths. The WHO said the country has also recorded 177 suspected deaths and nearly 750 suspected cases.
“The potential of this virus spreading rapidly is high, very high, and that changed the whole dynamic,” said Abdirahman Mahamud, the WHO’s director of health emergency alert and response operations.
Tedros said the situation in neighbouring Uganda appeared stable after two cases were confirmed in people who had travelled from Congo, one of whom died. Measures including intensive contact tracing and the cancellation of a mass gathering appear to have helped slow transmission, he added.
A US national working in Congo has also tested positive for Ebola and was transferred to Germany for treatment. Tedros said the WHO was also aware of reports that another American national, considered a high-risk contact, had been transferred to the Czech Republic.
WHO chief scientist Sylvie Briand said an experimental antiviral treatment, Obeldesivir, could potentially be used among Ebola contacts to prevent them from developing the disease.
The oral antiviral, developed by Gilead Sciences, was originally designed as an experimental COVID-19 treatment. Briand said it remained a promising option but would need to be used under a strict protocol.
The WHO said surveillance teams were beginning to detect more cases, a sign that monitoring systems were improving. But officials warned that the response was still trying to catch up with an outbreak believed to have started around two months before it was formally declared.
“We are sprinting behind, so that we can really try to control this outbreak,” said Anne Ancia, the WHO representative in Congo. “Because it is still transmitting for the time being, the numbers will keep rising for some time.”