GENEVA: The Ebola outbreak is spreading into new areas of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and is bigger in scale than hitherto detected, the World Health Organization warned Friday. Much more needs to be done to contain the virus, the WHO said, with isolation bed capacity far below the anticipated need, based on how it is spreading. Since the outbreak was declared on May 15, there have been 676 confirmed Ebola cases, including 136 deaths in the DRC, according to the latest figures from the WHO. There are a further 119 suspected cases, while 32 patients have recovered. No approved vaccines or treatments exist for the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus responsible for the current outbreak, which is centred on Ituri province, with cases also detected in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. &quot;The outbreak continues to expand both in terms of case numbers but also in terms of geographic spread,&quot; said Olivier le Polain, the WHO&#39;s head of epidemiology and analytics for response. Contact tracingSpeaking from Beni in North Kivu, he said that cases were being identified in new health zones within the three affected provinces on an almost daily basis. &quot;That reflects really the scale of this outbreak: a scale that is much bigger than what is being detected, and the high mobility of the population,&quot; he told reporters in Geneva. Le Polain said that while in recent weeks, cases in new areas could be traced back to travel from hotspots, now &quot;we also see local community spread in new areas&quot;. &quot;There are still many blind spots in some areas that are high risk,&quot; he added. Le Polain said contact tracing remained below ideal levels, with just over 70 percent of contacts being appropriately traced. &quot;That&#39;s a huge improvement from where we were about a week or two ago, but it&#39;s still too low to ensure appropriate control,&quot; he said. &quot;Surveillance can scale up, but if you don&#39;t have any space to put your patients safely, it becomes very difficult,&quot; he added. He said that &quot;compared to where the epidemiology is heading&quot;, the current capacity of 250 isolation beds across the affected provinces would not be enough and needed scaling up &quot;quite rapidly&quot;. Expected impact on childrenThe UN children&#39;s agency UNICEF warned of a likely rise in cases amongst children via household transmission in the coming weeks. After returning from Ituri&#39;s capital Bunia, Douglas Noble, UNICEF&#39;s global incident manager for Ebola, said that in the province, more than half of children aged under five are chronically malnourished. &quot;The point is: these are already very vulnerable children,&quot; he told reporters. &quot;As the outbreak evolves we must be prepared for increasing household transmission, which means we may see more children affected in the days ahead,&quot; based on previous Ebola crises. &quot;We are expecting it, and we are taking steps in our interventions... to respond to that,&quot; he told reporters. The outbreak has also spread across the border into Uganda, which has recorded 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths. The African Union&#39;s health agency said Thursday that the situation in Uganda was &quot;under control&quot;. The WHO classifies the Ebola risk as very high within the DRC; high for Uganda; high for countries sharing land borders with the DRC and Uganda; and low elsewhere.

Natural Disaster

The WHO warns the Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo is spreading faster and wider than previously detected, with cases rising sharply, healthcare capacity under strain and new areas reporting community transmission.

Ebola spreading into new areas in northeast DR Congo: WHO

Web Desk

GENEVA: Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic. In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago. In neighboring Uganda, meanwhile, it counted 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths. The total of 471 cases and 84 deaths, based on numbers reported by the DRC and Ugandan governments, marked a hike of 100 cases and 20 deaths from a day earlier. The increase came amid warnings that the outbreak, which the WHO has declared an international public health emergency, could eventually swell to become the largest on record. A top official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that models indicated that without strong public health interventions, the current outbreak risked rivalling the scale of the 2014 West Africa epidemic, which saw over 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths. &quot;That scale is possible,&quot; said Jason Asher, director of CDC&#39;s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, during a press briefing. Ebola, which is spread through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The current outbreak was declared on May 15 in northeastern DR Congo, but the virus is believed to have spread under the radar for some time beforehand. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak. The WHO and the African CDC on Friday launched a $518-million plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months, focusing among other things on boosting surveillance, laboratory testing and infection prevention. &quot;The outbreak is moving fast, and we are still playing catch-up,&quot; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. &quot;We need to stop the outbreak where it is, support countries that are responding today, and ensure that neighboring countries are ready to detect and act quickly if cases appear,&quot; he said. &quot;This is a serious outbreak and its one we know how to stop but we need to move fast and together.&quot;

Doctors Without Border (MSF) personnel stands at the Elikya clinic Ebola treatment center in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on June 5, 2026. (AFP)

Africa

In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago.

Nearly 500 confirmed cases in Central Africa Ebola outbreak: WHO

GENEVA: The Ebola outbreak raging in central Africa had a &quot;big head-start,&quot; the World Health Organization chief acknowledged Wednesday, but insisted efforts to rein in the deadly virus were making progress. The outbreak, which was declared on May 15 in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has so far been confirmed to have infected 359 people, including 61 who have died. But the actual numbers could be far higher, with the virus believed to have been spreading under the radar for some time before it was detected. &quot;The outbreak had a big head-start and we&#39;re still behind,&quot; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the UN health agency&#39;s headquarters in Geneva, but insisted that &quot;we&#39;re catching up.&quot; Tedros, who had just returned from a trip to DRC, where he travelled to the outbreak&#39;s epicentre in Ituri province, said he had been &quot;very encouraged by the level of commitment I saw everywhere I went.&quot; But challenges remain, he said, warning that &quot;the virus is ahead of us ... we need to move faster.&quot; It has been clear from the start that the difficulties would be daunting, with the outbreak concentrated in Ituri, where decades of armed conflicts have forced millions of people from their homes and into crowded camps. Ebola patient visited UAE&nbsp;The region&#39;s insecurity, limited testing capacity, lagging contact tracing and mistrust among some of the population are among the challenges facing the response, Tedros said. On top of that, no vaccine or approved treatment exists for Bundibugyo, the rare strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak. Ebola, which is passed on through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The current outbreak &mdash; the 17th to hit the DRC &mdash; has to date seen 344 confirmed Ebola cases across three of the country&#39;s provinces, including 60 deaths, said the WHO. The UN health agency also tallied 116 suspected cases of the disease. Fifteen cases, including one death, have also been reported in neighboring Uganda, including a Congolese resident who had arrived there after first travelling to the United Arab Emirates, Tedros said. &quot;WHO is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel, and to facilitate contact tracing,&quot; he said. Speed up contact tracing&nbsp;The agency has said the risk from the outbreak is &quot;very high&quot; at the national level, &quot;high&quot; at the regional level, and &quot;low&quot; at the global level. Tedros stressed Wednesday that while the WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings in affected countries to prevent the spread of the virus, broader limits were unhelpful. &quot;Blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response,&quot; he warned. &quot;We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.&quot; Reining in the outbreak would instead center on significantly bolstering and speeding up the response on the ground, including by decentralizing laboratory testing in Ebola hotspots, Tedros said. At present, only around 45% of known contacts of Ebola cases have been followed up, the WHO chief said. &quot;To get ahead of the outbreak, we need to get that number up to above 90%.&quot; Abdi Rahman Mahamud, the WHO&#39;s emergency alert and response director, told reporters that so far, more than 1,400 tests had been conducted. But decentralization across five priority locations &mdash; Mongbwalu, Beni, Aru, Nyakunde and Tchomia &mdash; should soon make it possible &quot;to do 1,000 tests a day.&quot;

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15 in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has so far been confirmed to have infected 359 people, including 61 who have died.



Ebola had 'big head-start' but response catching up: WHO

ISLAMABAD: The International Rescue Committee warned Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is likely much larger and more advanced than official figures indicate, as response efforts struggle with delayed detection and dangerously low levels of contact tracing. According to World Health Organization data, Ebola is a rare but severe and often fatal illness in humans, with an average case fatality rate of around 50%, ranging from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. The current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo virus strain, for which no approved vaccine or specific therapeutics currently exist, according to available epidemiological data. The virus spreads through direct contact with broken skin or mucous membranes and bodily fluids of infected or deceased persons, and through indirect contact with contaminated surfaces or materials, according to WHO tracking. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days, with individuals not contagious until symptoms appear, per WHO guidelines. With only 20% of contacts currently being traced, health authorities are struggling to identify and isolate new chains of transmission, according to the IRC. The virus may have been spreading undetected since before March, potentially as long as three months before the first official case was identified, allowing multiple chains of transmission to establish across communities and provinces, the IRC warned. &quot;The true scale of this Ebola outbreak is likely far worse than official figures suggest,&quot; said Rachel Howard, Senior Technical Emergency Health Adviser at the IRC. &quot;When four out of five contacts are not being traced, it becomes incredibly difficult to contain the outbreak or even understand its true scale. We&#39;re especially concerned about the virus spreading to other countries like Burundi or South Sudan.&quot; According to integrated epidemiological data, the total confirmed case numbers are 282 in the DRC and 9 in Uganda, with over 220 suspected cases under investigation. At least 42 confirmed deaths have been reported in the DRC and 1 in Uganda. IRC teams report that shortages of diagnostic cartridges and testing backlogs are slowing case confirmation, further obscuring the true spread of the outbreak. Seven confirmed Ebola patients have reportedly left treatment centers in the DRC. More than six healthcare workers have died, including two doctors, in recent days. People are avoiding health facilities, raising concerns that those affected are staying in their communities rather than seeking treatment. Without urgent funding, the situation could deteriorate rapidly. The outbreak is increasingly resembling the 2018-20 North Kivu Ebola crisis, which infected thousands of people and was complicated by insecurity, population movement, and community resistance. However, unlike in previous outbreaks, when the Ervebo vaccine was deployed, there is currently no approved vaccine for this Ebola strain. The IRC called for urgent international support to scale up contact tracing, surveillance, laboratory testing, treatment capacity, and community engagement efforts. In Uganda, the organization teamed up with the local health ministry on the border to support infection prevention and control activities, including screening people coming across the border.

The current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo virus strain, for which no approved vaccine or specific therapeutics currently exist.

Congo Ebola outbreak likely far larger than official figures suggest: IRC

PARIS: Several non-profit organisations announced Monday they are ramping up efforts to rapidly develop a vaccine for the rare strain of Ebola driving a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.&nbsp;Nearly 250 people are suspected to have died and more than 1,100 infected with the strain in the DRC and neighbouring Uganda, though the true spread of the virus is feared to be much wider.&nbsp;While it marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, it is just the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.&nbsp;The escalating nature of the outbreak has sparked a race to find a vaccine that can be quickly developed, manufactured then tested in humans during clinical trials in the affected region. <figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/f895bb40-57a9-4559-8e87-ef031581f56a-AFP__20260531__B4JA6ZR__v1__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" alt="AFP__20260531__B4JA6ZR__v1__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>A health worker stands in a new Ebola treatment center during a visit of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in Bunia, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 31, 2026. (AFP)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The World Health Organization said on Saturday that its experts had determined &quot;the most promising candidate vaccine&quot; was a single-dose shot using the rVSV platform.&nbsp;The only licensed Ebola vaccine, which targets the more common Zaire strain, uses the same platform.&nbsp;The non-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announced Monday it had reached a deal with the University of Texas Medical Branch to develop the rVSV candidate.&nbsp;The university&#39;s Thomas Geisbert led work on both the Bundibugyo candidate and the licensed Zaire jab. <figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/c4d6c304-5240-49ae-8963-4e07567100f8-AFP__20260526__B43N3DN__v3__MidRes__TopshotUgandaHealthEbola.jpg" alt="AFP__20260526__B43N3DN__v3__MidRes__TopshotUgandaHealthEbola.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>A Uganda Red Cross Society worker in protective gear are sprayed with disinfectant during the evacuation of the body of a suspected Ebola victim in Kampala on May 26, 2026. (AFP)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Geisbert told AFP last month that 2013 research demonstrated his jab provided very strong protection against Bundibugyo in monkeys.&nbsp;However the vaccine &quot;just sat there&quot; for more than a decade because of a lack of interest, in particular from pharmaceutical firms, the virologist added.&nbsp;The WHO estimated it would take seven to nine months before the rVSV vaccine is ready to be tested in humans.&nbsp;&#39;Fast-track&#39;Also on Monday, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced funding to &quot;fast-track&quot; development of three Bundibugyo vaccine candidates, including $3.2 million towards the rVSV jab.&nbsp;WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited the epicentre of the outbreak in the DRC on the weekend, said in a statement the funding was &quot;an important step forward&quot;.&nbsp;Another vaccine candidate receiving CEPI funding was developed on the University of Oxford&#39;s ChAdOx1 platform, which also underpinned AstraZeneca&#39;s Covid vaccine.&nbsp;This viral vector jab -- which will be manufactured by the huge Serum Institute of India -- could become available for clinical trials within two to three months, the WHO said.&nbsp;CEPI also said it had committed $50 million to a vaccine candidate being developed by US pharma giant Moderna which uses the mRNA technology pioneered in its Covid vaccine. <figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/f5fd6e58-55c4-4057-b939-5582c849e0c5-AFP__20260526__B4478GQ__v7__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" alt="AFP__20260526__B4478GQ__v7__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>A healthcare worker takes a visitor&#39;s temperature at Rwampara Hospital in Ituri, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 26, 2026. (AFP)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In a preprint paper published online last week, researchers at France&#39;s INSERM institute called for trials to see if the licenced Zaire vaccine could also help fight Bundibugyo.&nbsp;$50 million pledgeAlso on Monday, the Gavi vaccine alliance announced it would make up to $50 million available for Bundibugyo vaccine efforts.&nbsp;&quot;We need to act now to ensure that, once one or more vaccine candidates are ready, manufacturers are in a position to start producing doses at scale,&quot; Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar said in a statement.&nbsp;IAVI president Mark Feinberg told a press conference on Monday that Gavi&#39;s new commitment could fund the production of roughly 500,000 doses.&nbsp;It also provided a &quot;signal to manufacturers they can make this investment and not carry excessive risk,&quot; he added.&nbsp;Even once doses for a trial are ready, there will be challenges in deploying them in a vast, remote area of the DRC that is already suffering crises including hunger, malaria and conflict.&nbsp;Gaining the trust of communities where vaccines will be trialled will be crucial, the WHO emphasised.&nbsp;And once a trial is finally carried out, there is no guarantee it will demonstrate the vaccine works.&nbsp;&quot;We have reasons to believe that we can generate effective vaccines, but we don&#39;t want to downplay at all that we have to treat them as investigational products,&quot; CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett said last week.&nbsp;There are also several efforts to quickly trial several Bundibugyo treatments, including antivirals called remdesivir and obeldesivir, and the monoclonal antibody MBP134.

A deadly Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda has infected over 1,100 people and killed nearly 250. Global health organizations are accelerating development of vaccines and treatments, with several candidates expected to enter clinical trials within months.

'We need to act now': Race to develop Ebola vaccine heats up

BRAS&Iacute;LIA: Brazilian health authorities are monitoring two patients for possible Ebola infection in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, officials said, sparking further concern of the deadly virus outbreak in central Africa spreading abroad.&nbsp;A 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the outbreak has been concentrated, &quot;exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case&quot; of Ebola, the Sao Paulo state government said in a statement on Saturday.&nbsp;While initial tests did not detect the Ebola virus in the patient, he is being monitored and isolated as a precautionary measure at a specialized infectious disease facility, the statement said.&nbsp;The health department in Rio de Janeiro state meanwhile reported that it had activated safety protocols after a man from Uganda showed &quot;viral symptoms such as cough, chills, and diarrhea.&quot;&nbsp;The Rio city government said in an email to AFP that the patient tested positive for malaria Saturday evening and &quot;the case remains under investigation.&quot;&nbsp;There have been more than 1,000 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including nearly 250 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.&nbsp;Several infections and one death have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.&nbsp;However, the true reach of the outbreak in the DRC, which is thought to have been circulating before it was detected, is likely to be much wider, the World Health Organization has warned.&nbsp;The Sao Paulo government said that despite the suspected case, &quot;the technical assessment indicates that the risk of the disease being introduced into Brazil and South America remains very low.&quot;

Americas

Brazil is monitoring two suspected Ebola cases in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro involving patients from DRC and Uganda. Initial tests were negative or showed malaria, and officials say the risk of outbreak remains very low.

Brazil investigates two possible Ebola cases

GOMA: Fighting between government troops and the Rwanda-backed M23 militia has been raging for days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola epidemic is spreading, security sources and locals said Monday. The mineral-rich region has been scarred by violence from various armed groups for more than three decades. Since 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of territory and fighting has stepped up since the start of 2025. It is also ground zero for an Ebola outbreak which has sparked an international health alert by the World Health Organization. The illness has caused 204 deaths and 867 suspected cases, according to a toll given over the weekend by the DRC&#39;s health ministry. The security and local sources said the recent combat has been taking place in Masisi, an area in North Kivu province, which lies south of the Ituri province, the epicentre of the Ebola epidemic. On Monday, North Kivu&#39;s &nbsp;deputy governor, Didier Lomoyo, said mortar fire had been aimed at the strategic airport at Kisangani, used by Congolese troops, while a police source on the ground told AFP that two drones had been intercepted &quot;without causing any damage.&quot; In recent months, M23 has repeatedly targeted the airport, from which military aircraft belonging to Kinshasa&rsquo;s forces take off. Local sources have reported several air strikes in localities in North Kivu and South Kivu in recent days, but AFP has not been able to confirm the casualty figures from these strikes with independent sources.

Response team members are helped to wear protective suits before burying a person suspected of having died from Ebola in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 25, 2026. (AFP)

Fighting between government troops and Rwanda-backed M23 militia intensifies in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a deadly Ebola epidemic spreads across the region.

Fighting flares in east DR Congo as Ebola epidemic spreads

GENEVA: The countries neighboring the Democratic Republic of Congo are at high risk from Ebola and should act immediately to counter the virus, the World Health Organization&rsquo;s head said on Monday.&nbsp;&quot;Countries bordering DRC are at especially high risk and should take immediate action,&quot; said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that he would travel on Tuesday to the DRC, the epicentre of the current outbreak of the deadly disease.&nbsp;&quot;The outbreak is spreading rapidly,&quot; Tedros told a virtual ministerial meeting on the viral haemorrhagic fever, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.&nbsp;He said the current outbreak was &quot;especially challenging&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;First, the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic. We are urgently scaling up operations but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,&quot; he said by videolink from Geneva.&nbsp;Secondly, the eastern provinces of the DRC, where the outbreak was first detected on May 15, &quot;are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months (and) there is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population&quot;.&nbsp;Thirdly, he pointed out, there were &quot;no approved vaccines or therapeutics&quot; for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak.&nbsp;The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed Ebola deaths and 220 suspected deaths in the DRC since May 15. One person is confirmed dead in neighbouring Uganda&nbsp;Ten African countries are at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda, the African Union&#39;s health agency, Africa CDC, warned on Saturday.

WHO warns neighboring countries of Democratic Republic of Congo are at high Ebola risk as the outbreak spreads rapidly. Ten confirmed and 220 suspected deaths reported, plus one in Uganda. Insecurity, delay, and no vaccine worsen the situation.

WHO urges DRC's neighbors to act immediately on Ebola

BUNIA: Locals at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo attacked the town hospital overnight, demanding the body of a religious leader who died from the virus, officials said on Monday.&nbsp;Mongbwalu, a large town in the unstable northeastern province of Ituri, is where the current outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic fever was first detected on May 15, since when it has killed more than 200 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.&nbsp;&quot;A group of young people attacked the hospital four times,&quot; a hospital official told AFP of the incident on Sunday night.&nbsp;&quot;They wanted to retrieve the body of a Catholic shepherd who had died of Ebola,&quot; the official said on condition of anonymity.&nbsp;He said the victim had been &quot;a well-known local figure, a religious leader from Mongbwalu&quot;, which is home to 130,000 people.&nbsp;Soldiers intervened to disperse the crowd with warning shots, he said.&nbsp;Ebola is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.&nbsp;There is no vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the current Ebola outbreak, the 17th to plague the vast central African country of more than 100 million people.&nbsp;Attempts to tackle the spread are forced to rely mainly on precautions and rapid contact tracing.&nbsp;But in rural parts of the DRC, &quot;loved ones are throwing themselves at the bodies, touching the corpses and the clothes of the deceased, while organising mourning rituals bringing together loads of people&quot;, Jean Marie Ezadri, a civil society leader in Ituri, told AFP last week.&nbsp;&quot;This... explains the many instances of contamination.&quot;&nbsp;Distrust and incomprehensionPoorly served by roads and torn apart by violence, Ituri is one of the most troubled provinces in the DRC.&nbsp;Hastily arranged burials of Ebola victims have been met with suspicion in a region already distrustful of the state.&nbsp;An isolation tent near Mongbwalu hospital was torched on Friday night and the hospital official said his car had been stoned at the weekend.&nbsp;The tensions were &quot;hampering (Ebola) response efforts&quot;, he said.&nbsp;Another hospital worker confirmed the incidents.&nbsp;Mongbwalu medical centre is not the first in Ituri to have been attacked.&nbsp;Tents used to isolate Ebola patients at the hospital in Rwampara, Ituri, were burned down on Thursday after the family of a deceased man was prevented from taking his body for burial because of the dangers of contamination.&nbsp;Tonnes of medical supplies have been sent to Ituri, where teams from the World Health Organization are on the ground.&nbsp;But the response has been slow to get off the ground in a province where state services have been largely absent from rural areas for decades.&nbsp;One million of the province&#39;s estimated eight million inhabitants have been displaced by years of conflict and live cheek-by-jowl in cramped camps.&nbsp;The WHO has issued an international health alert.

At least 200 people have died in a Bundibugyo strain Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with angry residents attacking hospitals over burial disputes. Officials say distrust, violence, and unsafe mourning rituals are hampering efforts to contain the virus.

Locals at epicenter of DR Congo Ebola outbreak storm hospital

ADDIS ABABA: Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo updated the death toll from the Ebola outbreak to 204 late Saturday, hours after the Red Cross said three volunteers had died there and Uganda confirmed three new Ebola cases. A health ministry statement said 204 deaths had been recorded in three provinces of the vast central African country, from 867 suspected cases. The last World Health Organization toll on Friday put the number of deaths at 177 from 750 suspected cases. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever an international emergency. On Saturday, the African Union&#39;s health agency warned that more countries on the continent were at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda. &quot;We have 10 countries at risk,&quot; said Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), listing Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. Kaseya said &quot;high mobility and insecurity&quot; in the region were helping spread the disease. The new cases confirmed in Uganda on Saturday bring to five the total confirmed in the east African country since it was detected there and in the DRC on May 15. One person in Uganda has died. The health ministry named the new patients as a Ugandan driver, a Ugandan health worker and a woman from the DRC. All are alive. Ebola is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. The current epidemic centers on the conflict-wracked eastern DRC, where it was detected in Ituri province, which borders Uganda, before spreading to South Kivu. First known victimsThe Red Cross said on Saturday that three Congolese volunteers had died in Ituri after apparently contracting Ebola there. The three &quot;were carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola&quot;, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). &quot;At the time of the intervention, the community was not aware of the Ebola virus disease outbreak... They are among the first known victims.&quot;Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century. On Friday,&nbsp;the WHO raised the risk from Ebola in the DRC to its highest level &ndash; &quot;very high&quot;. It said the risk in central Africa was &quot;high&quot; but the global risk remained &quot;low&quot;. The outbreak, which experts suspect was circulating under the radar for some time, is caused by the less common Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. On Thursday, Uganda suspended public transport to the DRC after confirming its first two cases &ndash; one infection and one death &ndash; involving Congolese nationals who crossed the border. It said the driver confirmed infected on Saturday had been at the wheel of the vehicle in which one of the ill Congolese nationals had travelled to Uganda.The health worker was exposed to the virus when treating that Congolese patient. The third case was a Congolese woman who had visited Uganda and tested positive for Ebola after returning to the DRC. &#39;Everyone&#39;s problem&#39;&nbsp;The eastern DRC has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving numerous armed groups. State services in rural areas of Ituri have been largely absent for decades. South Kivu is controlled by the Rwandan-backed armed group M23, which has never had to manage an epidemic like Ebola. &quot;This is everyone&#39;s problem,&quot; Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told a news conference in Addis Ababa alongside Kaseya. He said the Kinshasa government needed to have &quot;total control&quot; of the DRC territory to stop the virus spreading.

Health officials warn wider regional spread as new cases emerge in Uganda and deaths rise in Congo, prompting emergency response measures and concern across multiple African countries at risk of infection.

Articles tagged with "Ebola Virus"