WHO warns Ebola outbreak now "more complex", present in three African countries
WHO regional director Mohamed Janabi warned the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak is now a "more complex" landscape, with active or recent cases in Kenya, the DRC and Nigeria; Nigeria's first case was reported on Tuesday and 44 contacts are being monitored.
The World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo is growing more “complex”, spreading across East and West Africa. “We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape,” Mohamed Janabi, WHO’s regional director for Africa, told a media briefing on Thursday (Al Jazeera).
Nigeria reported its first Bundibugyo case on Tuesday, becoming the fourth African country hit by the outbreak announced in the DRC in mid-May, which has killed more than 4,000 people there. Kenya, the DRC and Nigeria all have active or recent cases; Uganda, which had cases earlier this year, has been declared Ebola-free.
The patient is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat in Abuja. The WHO and Africa CDC said they had no confirmed information that she travelled to the DRC — Ugandan authorities said she had visited the east, while a Swiss statement to Reuters said she likely contracted it while travelling in Uganda; Uganda’s spokesman Alan Kasujja called that “preposterous” (The Straits Times).
Africa CDC’s Wessam Mankoula said both first cases left Entebbe airport on 3 October, and a possible encounter between them is under investigation. Kenya has nine cases and traced all 135 contacts of its first case; Nigeria is tracing 44.
The DRC outbreak is the deadliest in the country’s history — over 4,000 deaths from more than 9,000 confirmed cases since May — and the Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, with the fatality rate approaching 50 per cent.
More on this topic: all Health stories
