{"id":34759,"date":"2026-05-18T13:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34759"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:44:00","slug":"drc-ebola-outbreak-sparks-global-emergency","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/drc-ebola-outbreak-sparks-global-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC Ebola outbreak sparks global emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The designation is reserved for diseases that pose a public health risk to other countries.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">The declaration comes just days after Uganda confirmed a case in its capital Kampala.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">\nA new Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo has left more than eighty people dead since April.<\/p>\n<p>The World Health\u00a0Organisation (WHO) says the disease has spread to\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0Uganda where two cases have been confirmed.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">That prompted WHO experts to declare it a public health emergency.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists say the outbreak circulating in the\u00a0DRC\u00a0is caused by the\u00a0Bundibugyo\u00a0virus which has a fatality rate of between 30 to 50 percent.<\/p>\n<p>The strain was first identified in western Uganda in 2007 and currently has no vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>The WHO has urged countries\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0the\u00a0DRC\u00a0to strengthen surveillance and control measures along their borders.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0organisation\u00a0has also discouraged travel bans and restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>However, Rwanda has closed its border with the\u00a0DRC\u00a0at the western town of\u00a0Rubavu.<\/p>\n<p>The latest Ebola outbreak is the\u00a017th\u00a0to occur in the\u00a0DRC\u00a0since 1976.<\/p>\n<p>It has happened in a region with significant cross-border trade that is also grappling with armed conflict.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0DRC\u00a0health minister and several WHO experts have\u00a0travelled\u00a0to\u00a0Ituri\u00a0province to help coordinate response efforts with local health workers.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34548,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-34759","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34760,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34759\/revisions\/34760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}