The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo may already have spread beyond the country’s borders and into other provinces.
Anne Ancia, WHO representative, said investigations into the
outbreak were revealing wider transmission than initially thought.
“The more we are investigating this outbreak, the more we
realise that it has already disseminated at least a little bit across border
and also in other provinces,” BBC quoted Ancia as saying.
She described Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak,
as “a very unsecured area with lots of movement of population”, making efforts
to trace infections and contain the disease more difficult.
She added that the outbreak had also spread to South Kivu
province, an area already grappling with a prolonged humanitarian crisis.
The outbreak, which has killed at least 131 people, has
raised global concern following reports of cross-border transmission into
neighbouring Uganda, where one death has already been recorded.
Officials said more than 513 Ebola cases were suspected in
Congo as of Tuesday.
The WHO recently declared the outbreak a public health
emergency of international concern, citing the escalating spread of the virus
and the growing risk of transmission across borders.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the agency said the
declaration followed consultations with authorities in DR Congo and Uganda.
However, the organisation noted that the outbreak had not
yet met the threshold for a pandemic emergency under the International Health
Regulations.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said he was
“deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic”.
A modelling study released on Monday by the London-based MRC
Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis suggested the actual scale of
infections could be significantly higher than official figures indicate.
The study said there had been “substantial” under-detection
and warned that there could already have been more than 1,000 cases.
The study added that the outbreak was “larger than currently
ascertained” and that its “true magnitude remains uncertain”.
There is currently no vaccine for the strain of Ebola
driving the latest outbreak, although the WHO said it was evaluating whether
existing drugs could offer some level of protection.
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