Congo's Ebola outbreak has spread to a seventh province after testing confirmed the rare Bundibugyo strain in Sud-Ubangi. Congo's national research institute detected the Bundibugyo Ebola virus in a sample from the Bulu health district in Sud-Ubangi province. A former health minister said the patient was a 23-year-old man who died after traveling through several provinces and through Rwanda and Uganda. Sud-Ubangi borders the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, increasing concern about possible cross-border spread.
Sud-Ubangi became the seventh affected province and the first in western Congo during the current outbreak. Government figures released Friday listed 7,022 reported cases and 3,398 deaths as of Thursday. The province does not border the six eastern provinces that had previously reported confirmed cases. The Ervebo vaccine used against Zaire Ebola is being offered to some frontline workers while Bundibugyo-specific trials proceed.
The World Health Organization has said the outbreak remains out of control and could surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic. New cases have declined recently in Ituri, the original epicenter, while rising sharply in North Kivu and Haut-Uele. A case had previously reached Kinshasa through travel, but the capital was not classified as an affected province. The reporting attributes institutional statements to the officials or organizations that made them and separates those statements from independently observed events.
The response is operating amid armed insecurity, population displacement, a health-workers' strike and extensive travel between provinces. Clinical trials are underway because there is no licensed vaccine specifically approved for the Bundibugyo strain. Ebola surveillance depends on rapid isolation, laboratory confirmation, contact tracing and community cooperation. Officials had not published a full travel chronology or complete contact list for the Sud-Ubangi case when the report was filed.
Results of contact tracing across the patient's reported travel route. Whether new cases appear in neighboring countries or additional western provinces. The next dated releases, filings or operational changes will provide the clearest evidence of whether the situation has stabilized or materially changed.