World Health Declares New Ebola Pandemic

April 30, 2022

A new outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has raised concerns about the risk of regional and international transmission of Ebola  virus.

As of 30 April 2022 , “267 people exposed to the dead ebola patients bodily fluids  have been identified”, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which considers it “difficult to assess the extent of the Ebola  epidemic” at this stage.

“The risk of regional and international spread of this Ebola epidemic cannot be ruled out as the town of Mbandaka borders the Congo River and has river and land connections with the capital Kinshasa, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Angola,” the WHO said in a statement on Thursday.

In addition, the WHO adds, Mbandaka has air links with the province of South Ubangi, which borders the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, and with Kinshasa.

World Health  warns time is not on our side

• 25-year-old woman from Mbandaka died days after her brother-in-law
• The World Health Organization declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday
• Dr Matshidiso Moeti says doctors are playing catch-up with the disease 

Ebola has claimed its second victim in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid a fresh resurgence of Ebola .

The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak this month.

The first patient, a 31-year-old man, started feeling ill on April 5, before dying on April 21.

A second patient, a 25-year-old woman then become unwell on April 13, displaying Ebola symptoms.

She was treated at home for five days, and visited a prayer house, a health centre, a pharmacy and a nurse’s home.

This patient, a family member of the first case, tragically died on April 25.

Health officials have so far found hundreds of people who were in contact with both cases.

 Ebola  has an incubation period of two to 21 days, meaning symptoms can take up to three weeks to appear from the time of infection. 

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional director for Africa, said: ‘Time is not on our side.’

Speaking after the first  Ebola death, Dr Moeti said: ‘The disease has had a two-week head start and we are now playing catch-up.’

Genetic testing showed the 31-year-old man’s  Ebola infection was a new ‘spillover event’ — transmission from an infected animal, such as bats, porcupines or primates.

It is not linked to any previous Ebola outbreaks, according to the DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research.

He began showing symptoms on April 5, but did not seek treatment for more than a week. The man had also reportedly been vaccinated against Ebola before.

His sister-in-law began experiencing symptoms 12 days before she died.

Congo has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, including one in 2018-2020 in the east that killed nearly 2,300 people, the second highest toll recorded in the history of the hemorrhagic fever.

Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province, has also contended with two previous outbreaks.

Ebola kills around half of people it infects, and the mortality rate has been as high as 90 percent during some surges.

The Ebola virus spreads very easily and can quickly tear through populations. Contact with bodily fluids of a person sick with the virus can quickly cause infection, and the virus can also contaminate surfaces to transmit the virus.

Ebola vaccines and treatments are beginning to become more widely available, and researchers are hopeful it can put an end to this extremely deadly disease.