New Ebola Outbreak Kills 80 as WHO Declares a Public Health Emergency

A new Ebola outbreak in central Africa that has already killed 80 people has some people worried about wider and larger outbreak.

Health officials have exercised caution in this outbreak and in an area already hit by a humanitarian crisis and with regional war and violence.

New Ebola Outbreak

The World Health Organization learned of suspected cases on the 5th of May and sent a team to Ituri in eastern DR Congo to help investigate, however tests conducted initially tested negative, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing on Friday.

'Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba said in a statement that samples tested on Thursday had confirmed eight cases of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus in the health zones of Rwampara, Mongwalu and Bunia,' according to CNN.

'So far there have been 246 suspected cases of the virus, the ministry said. The suspected index case was a nurse who died at the Evangelical Medical Centre in Bunia after showing symptoms that included fever, bleeding, vomiting and severe weakness,' according to CNN.

Some experts have faith that this outbreak is different than the one in 2012.

The DR Congo does have more experience in responding to Ebola outbreaks sine 2012 and the response this time is 'significantly stronger today than it was a decade ago,' says Dr Daniela Manno from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

War-torn Area

The area in which the new outbreak occurred has been gripped by war and regional conflict for decades; including currently where a Tutsi led rebel group captured land that currently makes up part of the infected area

'Fighting escalated at the start of 2025, when a rebel group known as the M23 made major advances across the east. The leaders of Rwanda and DR Congo have signed a peace deal brokered by the US in an attempt to halt the conflict,' according to the BBC.

There is also immense evidence that Rwanda has supported the M23 in this conflict even though Rwanda denies having involvement in the conflict.

New Strain Creates New Concerns

Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese virologist who was one of the people to discover Ebola and heads the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, told Reuters that all but one of Congo's 16 previous Ebola outbreaks had been caused by the Zaire strain.

'The identification of a different variant will complicate the response, he said, as existing treatments and vaccines were developed against the Zaire strain,' according to CNN.

Africa CDC is concerned about the risk of further spread due to the urban context of Bunia and Rwampara as well as 'intense population movement' and mobility related to mining in the affected areas, which are close to Uganda and South Sudan, the CDC said.

'Given the high population movement between affected areas and neighboring countries, rapid regional coordination is essential,' Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya said in the statement.

Dealing with Bundibugyo is 'one of the most significant concerns' in this outbreak, says Prof Trudie Lang from the University of Oxford.

'Many of the affected areas are mining towns with highly mobile and transient populations. This mobility increases risk as people move between communities and across borders,' said Lang.

The outbreak is the 17th in Congo since Ebola was first identified in 1976. The most recent outbreak, was said to be over on the 1st of December after occurring for three months. Out of 64 infections 45 died.