An Ebola outbreak declared in the DR Congo in early September has caused 42 deaths out of 64 confirmed cases but the risk of it spreading in the region is moderate, the WHO said Wednesday.
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo two weeks ago began rolling out a vaccine programme against the often fatal virus.
The highly contagious haemorrhagic fever has killed some 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak in the DRC, between 2018 and 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people.
Last month’s vaccination campaign followed the announcement of a resurgence of the disease in the central province of Kasai.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X that “at this time, 64 people have had Ebola in the DRC, of which 42 have died.”
The UN health agency and its partners are supporting the government-led response, he added.
WHO estimates a risk of further spread as high on a national level but moderate in the wider region.
It said that the outbreak is fuelled by insufficient protective equipment, as well as incomplete contact tracing, late detection and unsafe burial practices.
It added that high population mobility in a country of more than 100 million, plus a reliance on traditional healers, increased the risk of spread.
First identified in 1976 and thought to have crossed over from bats, Ebola is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, causing severe bleeding and organ failure.
The WHO estimated the mortality rate for the latest outbreak at 45.7 percent compared with between 25 and 90 for previous outbreaks.
The Zaire strain of the virus, for which there is a vaccine, is behind the new outbreak.
The International Coordination Group on Vaccine Supply (IGC), which manages the global stockpile of vaccines against a number of viruses including Ebola, has approved shipment of some 45,000 additional doses to the DRC, the WHO says. AFP