Africa CDC concerned that outbreak of Bundibugyo strain could spread rapidly due to intense population movement.

At least 80 deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) new Ebola disease outbreak, authorities said, as health workers race to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease.

Nearly 250 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have been recorded in eastern DRC, according to the health ministry, with one death also reported in neighbouring Uganda. This has raised concerns that the disease could spread to neighbouring countries.

“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,” DRC’s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said on Saturday.

“This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50 percent.”

The outbreak, the country’s seventeenth, was confirmed on Friday in the northeastern province of Ituri, which borders Uganda and South Sudan. At the time, 65 suspected deaths had been confirmed; the toll was raised to 80 on Saturday.

According to Kamba, the suspected patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in the provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola.

The disease has so far been confirmed in three health zones in Ituri, including Bunia, and the areas of Rwampara and Mongwalu, where the outbreak is concentrated.

Only 13 blood samples have been tested at the National Institute of Biomedical Research; eight tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain. The remaining five could not be analysed due to insufficient sample volume, the health minister said.

‘Extremely concerning’

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has raised concerns that the outbreak could spread rapidly, citing several factors, including the high population density of towns in Ituri and the close proximity of the affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan.

The agency also warned of the high volume of cross-border travel to and from the affected region, as well as the logistical challenges of containing the further spread of Ebola.

Medical aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), are responding to the outbreak.

“The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” said Trish Newport, MSF emergency programme manager.

Jagan Chapagain, secretary-general of the IFRC, said, “The evolving epidemiological situation, and the risk of cross‑border spread, underscore the need for timely, coordinated and sustained action. Engaging with communities and building trust is essential to ensure people seek care early and help stop the epidemic in its tracks.”

Ebola was first identified in 1976. Three strains of the disease are responsible for the majority of outbreaks in Africa, although a vaccine exists only for the Zaire strain.

Without treatment, up to 90 percent of cases can be fatal.

The Bundibugyo strain, which is responsible for the current outbreak, was not identified until 2006.

Tens of thousands of people in Africa have contracted Ebola since it was first identified 50 years ago, while about 15,000 people have died.