Congo Confirms Bundibugyo Ebola Strain in Ituri Outbreak; 363 Cases, 62 Deaths Reported as International Aid Mobilizes

A 25-year-old midwife and a doctor in his early 30s are sick with Ebola symptoms including fevers and severe joint pain at SOFEPADI's Karibuni Wa Mama Medical Center in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo. Elisabeth Furaha, the medical director there, said both workers cared for patients with similar symptoms in early May before the outbreak was detected.

One of those patients has since died, and none of the three individuals has received an Ebola test despite samples being taken.

The hospital lacks access to Ebola tests and an adequate supply of protective gowns and plastic masks. Furaha has spent her own money on gloves, masks, and a tarp to build a makeshift isolation tent. She described the conditions as inhumane because patients have no mattress and testing remains unreliable.

"We live with fear in our stomachs," Furaha said. " Nearly 250 suspected Ebola cases and 80 deaths had occurred by the time the virus was confirmed. The head of the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on May 17 after noting extensive silent transmission and cases in neighboring Uganda.

U.S. State Department pledged more than $162 million to contain the outbreak at its source. As of June 3, Congo's National Institute of Public Health reported 363 confirmed cases and 62 deaths. Tallies of suspected cases have fluctuated due to gaps in surveillance.

Researchers at Congo's National Institute of Biomedical Research identified the Bundibugyo virus strain, which carries a fatality rate of up to 50 percent and has no approved vaccines or treatments. The first samples tested in early May were negative because simpler tests detect only one Ebola type.

Additional samples reached the institute's main lab in Kinshasa on May 14 after a six-day journey, many degraded.

Investigators traced the first confirmed cases to deaths from unknown causes in a gold-mining town in Ituri. The Red Cross reported that three volunteers died of unknown causes after burying bodies there as early as March. Many clinics in northeastern Congo lack gloves, protective gowns, masks, Ebola tests, and clean water.

Some supplies from the Ministry of Health, the WHO, and other United Nations agencies have arrived but fall short of needs at hundreds of facilities. Shipments face delays from suspended flights within Congo and between Congo and neighboring countries.

Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, said small humanitarian planes are permitted to move but remain insufficient, expensive, and unsustainable.

Roads between remote clinics are often eroded or blocked by armed groups, said Rafaramalala Volanarisoa, a doctor with Catholic Relief Services in Kinshasa. In late April, nearly 200 people displaced by fighting in Ituri fled, potentially carrying the virus.

Maurice Kakule Mutsunga, a doctor at a hospital south of Ituri, reported a surge of patients injured or killed by the Allied Democratic Forces, with bodies arriving decapitated by machetes.

Less than a quarter of identified contacts had been monitored for infection as of the WHO report on May 21. A sophisticated molecular biology laboratory in Goma stopped functioning last year after the Rwandan-backed M23 group seized the city and closed its airport. Researchers now seek support for staff, training, equipment, consumables, and fuel to expand testing capacity in eastern Congo.