The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the risk of Ebola spreading remains high at national and regional levels in Central Africa.
The alert highlights a growing crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, where officials fear the virus is moving faster than initial estimates suggested. While the regional threat is significant, the WHO said that the global risk remains low.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of the WHO, said that the current understanding of the outbreak is evolving. "We know the scale of the epidemic is much larger," Ghebreyesus said.
Health data shows a stark rise in casualties. Reports indicate a suspected death toll of 139 [1], though other reports place the number of deaths at at least 131 [2]. There are 51 confirmed cases [1]. The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of the virus [3].
UNICEF has also raised alarms regarding the vulnerability of the population. The agency said that children are at extreme risk as the outbreak continues to move across the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda [3].
Regional containment efforts are ongoing, but the rising number of suspected deaths suggests that the virus is outpacing early containment strategies. The WHO continues to monitor the movement of the strain to prevent a wider international health emergency.
“"We know the scale of the epidemic is much larger."”
The discrepancy in death tolls and the admission that the epidemic's scale is larger than previously thought suggest a lag in surveillance and reporting. By identifying the Bundibugyo strain and focusing on regional containment, the WHO is attempting to prevent the localized outbreak from becoming a global event, while acknowledging that the current healthcare infrastructure in Central Africa is struggling to keep pace with the virus.
