Ebola epidemic in the DRC: the active strain of the virus “has no vaccine, no specific treatment” and presents “a very high fatality rate”

The Africa CDC, the African Union’s health agency, has warned of a “high risk of spread” of the virus. The Ebola epidemic is already suspected of causing 80 deaths in the central African country.

The Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took stock this Saturday, May 16, of the ongoing Ebola epidemic in the country. According to him, the active strain of the virus “has no vaccine, no specific treatment” and presents “a very high fatality rate”.

“The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine and no specific treatment,” Samuel-Roger Kamba stressed during a press conference in the Congolese capital Kinshasa, adding that “with this strain, the fatality rate is very high, we can go up to 50%.”

The epidemic is suspected of already being the cause of 80 deaths, in the vast central African country of more than 100 million inhabitants, and another in neighboring Uganda.

“Extremely concerned”

The focus of the epidemic is located in Ituri, a province in the northeast of Congo, bordering Uganda and South Sudan. This gold-producing region experiences intense population movements linked to mining activity on a daily basis. Furthermore, access to certain parts of the province, plagued by violence carried out by a myriad of armed groups, is difficult for security reasons.

The Africa CDC, the health agency of the African Union (AU) based in Addis Ababa, warned on Friday morning of a “high risk of spread” of the virus.

“The number of cases and deaths that we are seeing in such a short time, combined with the spread in several health zones and now beyond the border, is extremely worrying,” said Trish Newport, head of the emergency program, in a press release. from Doctors Without Borders.