The World Health Organization (WHO) is closely monitoring the worrying Ebola outbreak originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which has already spread to Uganda. This Saturday, the organization's Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Bunia, the capital of the eastern province of Ituri and the epicenter of the epidemic, to meet with local and provincial authorities and with WHO staff deployed on the ground. The director championed the country's fight against this disease as it faces its seventeenth epidemic: "This country has extensive experience in fighting Ebola and has already overcome it 16 times. We know that the DRC will contain this epidemic again."

The Ebola crisis is worsening in Central Africa. Ugandan authorities ordered this Wednesday to close the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo "with immediate effect" due to the increase in cases of a rare variant of the virus in the neighboring country. The first infections have also begun to appear in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, located between 400 and 500 kilometers from the initial focus of the outbreak.

Since it was detected, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is of particular concern to experts and health authorities. The number of suspected cases has already climbed to 900, and deaths under scrutiny exceed 200. Beyond the logical increase in figures once the virus was detected and medical attention and resources were allocated to contain the epidemic, the speed at which it is spreading keeps the WHO on alert. In a region with high levels of public insecurity and a considerable number of people living in shacks and tents in displacement camps, the health task becomes complicated, and the virus remains out of control for now. "Hunger and disease go hand in hand. People weakened by hunger are much more vulnerable to infections," stressed the WHO Secretary-General, Tedros Adhanom, this Monday.

Italy activated the health surveillance protocol this Monday pthe Ebola outbreak declared in the Democratic Republic of CongoHowever, the Italian government has wanted to send a message of reassurance to the public. Through a statement, it assured that the national system for the prevention and response to infectious emergencies is "fully operational" and that the risk in the country "remains very low".

In July 2014, Donald Trump – then still a private citizen and real estate mogul famous for his TV show The apprentice– was tweeting non-stop about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the most serious and lethal epidemic of this virus since its discovery in 1976. His now well-known and persistent all-caps messages intensified in October when a New York doctor who had returned from Guinea tested positive: “Stop the flights,” he said, and later, he demanded the resignation of Barack Obama, the then-President of the United States.

The Ebola outbreak detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been collapsing hospitals in the northeast of the country for days. With 177 suspected deaths and 750 cases also under scrutiny, in addition to currently undetermined but seemingly high detection rates, it is positioning itself as the third most serious outbreak in the history of this virus, and for now it is far from being controlled. The variant, named Bundibugyo, had only been detected on two occasions, in 2007 and 2012, and although it is not clear if it is more contagious than others, the conditions in which the outbreak has occurred lead to fears that the figures for cases and deaths will escalate in the coming days and that it will be complicated to stop the spread of the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern, although it does not yet meet the criteria for a pandemic. Nor did the hantavirus outbreak associated with the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was more of a stress test for the functioning of institutions and the health system. What is certain is that both episodes have highlighted that 21st-century health crises require a one health approach, integrating human health, animal health, and the environment: the world is facing global health crises caused largely by respiratory and zoonotic viruses. Catalonia is a pioneer in this comprehensive approach thanks to the Public Health Agency, created in 2009, which is responsible for epidemiological surveillance, has an early warning system, and provides a rapid response to imminent public health emergencies (epidemiological intelligence), as does the agency of the city of Barcelona, operational since 2003. The State Public Health Agency, on the other hand, was not created until last year.At the institutional level, the hantavirus crisis unfolded between self-sufficiency and the misinformed alarmism of the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, illustrated by the hilarious image of rats swimming towards the coast of the Fortunate Islands. But also from the dirigisme and lack of transparency and cooperation of the Spanish government, especially in the early stages. The latter is relevant because, as we have known since the times of covid, healthcare and public health are areas in which the State and the autonomous communities share competencies. It is one thing for the State to have a reinforced intervention title, such as external health care—given that the origin of the crisis was a foreign-flagged ship with passengers of different nationalities—and another for the Canary Islands to be the one with the healthcare resources to carry out epidemiological surveillance.The public image of this episode has in many ways recalled the pattern of the pandemic, also due to the doubts evidenced about who was responsible for making decisions, whether safety measures were voluntary or mandatory, and what legal coverage they had. The contradictions between the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, were blatant. While the former affirmed her confidence in the voluntary compliance of the quarantine while warning of the existence of "legal instruments" to impose it, the latter insisted that it was a totally voluntary measure that could not be imposed.

More than 300 suspected cases and at least 88 deaths attributable to Ebola. This is the balance that the World Health Organization (WHO) currently makes of the outbreak declared in the Congo. On Friday, the public health agency of the African Union reported the new outbreak, and alarms have sounded because it is feared that it may have a wide geographical spread. The WHO declared on Saturday the public health emergency of international concern, the highest level of public alert that the organization can declare, but this does not mean that the outbreak has become a pandemic. In fact, experts are sending a message of reassurance to the world because the risk of transmission outside of Central Africa is very low.

The new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a "public health emergency of international concern", according to the World Health Organization (WHO). With more than 300 probable cases and at least 88 reported deaths, health authorities fear that this outbreak may have a possible geographical spread greater than expected – it affects border areas with Uganda, but there is also a case in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, about 3,000 kilometers away by road. Given this serious information, however, the Spanish government calls for calm: "with the available information" the risk of transmission "in the Spanish population is considered very low" and, therefore, it rules out imposing travel restrictions or commercial activities with either country, although it advises against traveling to the affected areas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a public health international emergency situation due to an Ebola outbreak in Congo that has already caused 88 deaths out of a total of 336 probable cases. This outbreak, therefore, is much more serious than the hantavirus one that affected a cruise ship and monopolized media attention for days. And it is because it has a much higher pandemic potential, as authorities have detected that transmission is proving to be much wider than initially detected.

The Ebola virus has once again become the center of international health alert after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Saturday the new outbreak in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo as a "public health emergency of international concern". According to available data, at least 336 probable cases and 88 suspected deaths have been registered in a disease that mainly affects border areas with Uganda –where two cases have been confirmed–, although it has also been detected in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, far from the initial focus. The geographical spread is of particular concern to health authorities, as it indicates a potentially wider transmission than initially detected.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union’s peak public health agency, has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 246 suspected cases and 65 reported deaths. So far, four deaths from Ebola have been confirmed by laboratory analysis, the agency reported in a statement on Friday.

A drug has been shown to successfully prevent the deaths of two species of monkeys infected with Ebola, according to a scientific article published this Friday in the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The antiviral, called Obeldesivir and in pill form, prevented between 80% and 100% of the deaths of 10 macaques that had been exposed to the Makona variant of the virus, which caused the deadliest outbreak to date, in 2014, in central and western Africa.