Image copyright EPA Image caption Nearly 1,400 people have died in a recent outbreak in DR Congo

The head of a major medical research charity has called the latest outbreak of Ebola in central Africa "truly frightening".

Nearly 1,400 people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said the epidemic was the worst since that of 2013-16 and has showed "no sign of stopping".

Two people have also died in neighbouring Uganda, the first cases of Ebola reported in the country.

A five-year-old boy infected with the virus died on Tuesday and his 50-year-old grandmother died on Wednesday, the Ugandan health ministry said.

The Ugandan government has reported at least six other suspected cases of the virus.

In a statement, Dr Farrar said the spread was "tragic but unfortunately not surprising". He warned that more cases were expected, and a "full" national and international response would be needed to protect lives.

"The DRC should not have to face this alone," he said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Treating Ebola in the DR Congo warzone

What's the situation so far?

Since the first case of Ebola in DR Congo last August, nearly 1,400 people have died - around 70% of all those infected.

The outbreak is the second-largest in the history of the disease, with a significant spike in new cases in recent weeks.

Only once before has an outbreak continued to grow more than eight months after it began - that was the epidemic in West Africa between 2013-16, which killed 11,310 people.

Efforts to contain the spread have been hindered by militia group violence and by suspicion towards foreign medical assistance.

Nearly 200 health facilities have been attacked in DR Congo this year, forcing health workers to suspend or delay vaccinations and treatments. In February, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) put its activities on hold in Butembo and Katwa - two eastern cities in the outbreak's epicentre.

In Uganda, a five-year-old boy died of the virus on Tuesday, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Officials said his grandmother and younger brother also had the disease. The boy is said to have travelled across the border with his family from DR Congo on Sunday. He was then taken to a Ugandan hospital after exhibiting symptoms, including vomiting blood, officials said.

Seven other cases have been confirmed in the country, and Uganda's government said 50 people were suspected to have come into contact with those infected.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is already the second deadliest in history

Emergency measures

Analysis by James Gallagher, Health and Science Correspondent, BBC News

Cases of Ebola appearing in another country are always a significant and worrying development. The key question now is how far has the virus spread in Uganda?

Has it been contained to just the family that crossed the border from DR Congo or has it spread more widely? This is a moment that Uganda has long prepared for and, hopefully, measures such as pre-emptively vaccinating healthcare workers will lower the risk of Ebola spreading.

This outbreak is already the second largest in human history and some have predicted it could take up to two more years to bring to an end. The WHO has twice ruled that this Ebola outbreak is not a yet global emergency. Its Emergency Committee will meet again on Friday.

What is being done to prevent the spread?

In Uganda, mass gatherings including market days and prayers have been cancelled. Market days in the town of Kasese attract an estimated 20,000 people at the border area.

Uganda's health ministry and the WHO said a rapid response team had been dispatched to identify others at risk.

The country has already vaccinated about 4,700 health workers against the disease, according to a joint statement by WHO and Ugandan health officials.

On Wednesday, WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he would hold an IHR Emergency Committee meeting on 14 June. The group will decide if the outbreak should now be deemed a public health emergency.

What is Ebola? </s> Latest Ebola outbreak spreads beyond Congo for first time with two cases confirmed in Uganda

Uganda has announced two cases of Ebola — a grandmother and a three-year-old boy — confirming that a deadly outbreak has spread for the first time beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Ugandan cases show the epidemic is entering a "truly frightening" phase and could kill many more people, one infectious disease specialist said.

The World Health Organisation's emergency committee will meet on Friday to decide whether the outbreak constitutes an international emergency.

A five-year-old boy who had crossed into Uganda from Congo died late on Tuesday and his family are currently in isolation and being monitored, Uganda's Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng, said.

The two new victims were the boy's brother and grandmother, the Ugandan health ministry said.

His grandfather had recently died of Ebola.

"This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping," said Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, which is involved in fighting Ebola.

"We can expect and should plan for more cases in DRC and neighbouring countries," he said.

The current Ebola epidemic began in August last year in eastern Congo and has already infected at least 2,062 people, killing 1,390 of them.

The West Africa epidemic infected 28,000 people and killed 11,300, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The viral disease spreads through contact with bodily fluids, causing haemorrhagic fever with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding.

Authorities have struggled to contain the disease partly because health workers have been repeatedly attacked in conflict-ravaged eastern Congo, the epicentre of the outbreak.

This year, the WHO has documented 174 attacks on health care workers and facilities in Congo, causing five deaths and 51 injuries, Geneva-based spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

There is widespread public mistrust of the Congo Government and health workers from outside the region, giving rise to rumours that the disease is a ruse to try to rig elections in the area, where dozens of armed groups operate.

Other rumours accused health teams of spreading the disease. Many victims have sought treatment with traditional healers instead.

Uganda, which has been on high alert for a possible spread of Ebola and has already vaccinated many frontline health workers, is relatively well prepared to contain the virus.

"The current cases in Uganda will be quickly contained but the failure to stop the current Ebola epidemic in DRC is simply tragic," Ian Jones, a professor of virology at Britain's Reading University, said. </s> The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo made the long-feared jump across borders with three cases confirmed Wednesday in Uganda, including the death of a 5-year-old boy who had the virus.

The World Health Organization and Ugandan health authorities said Tuesday the Congolese boy had traveled from Congo on Sunday, entered Uganda with his family and sought medical care.

The other two confirmed cases are the boy’s 3-year-old brother and his grandmother, 50. They are being treated under isolation at the Bwera Hospital Ebola Treatment Unit, in the west of Uganda, the country’s Ministry of Health said.

In a tweet Wednesday, WHO said the boy died Tuesday night.

“The young patient – 5- year-old index case of #Ebola died last night. Two more samples were sent to UVRI and have tested positive. We, therefore, have three confirmed cases of #Ebola in #Uganda,” the tweet said, referring to the Uganda Virus Research Institute.

The ministry added that eight people who had been in contact with the family were being traced.

The Congo outbreak is both the second largest and second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

More than 1,300 people have died since it began in August. The epicenter is in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, among the most populous in the Congo and bordering Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Concern had been mounting that the infectious disease would cross the border, underscored by an increase in the number of cases in recent weeks.

Pressure on WHO to declare international emergency

Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust, a UK medical research charity, said that while Uganda was well-prepared to cope with the disease, global health authorities should be ready for more cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other neighboring countries.

“This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon,” he said in a statement.

“There are now more deaths than any other Ebola outbreak in history, bar the West Africa Epidemic of 2013-16, and there can be no doubt that the situation could escalate towards those terrible levels.”

Uganda’s Health Ministry said the boy and his grandmother had been vomiting blood, a severe symptom of Ebola, when they had presented themselves to doctors.

“Ebola is a horrific illness that ravages the human body,” said Brechtje van Lith, Save the Children’s country director in Uganda. “This first death, of a child, is a sickening reminder of the dangers of this disease.”

WHO is likely to come under pressure to declare the outbreak an international health emergency. In April, the health body said it did not constitute a “public health emergency of international concern.”

WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.”

Unlike the outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people, there are now vaccines and experimental treatments to help stop the spread of the disease.

However, the Congo outbreak has proven difficult to bring under control because of community mistrust and violent attacks on health care workers.

“A step up in the national response with full international support is critical if we’re to contain the epidemic and ensure the very best protection for the communities at risk and for the health workers working to protect lives,” Farrar said. “This needs to be championed at the highest political levels, including at the UN and the upcoming G20.”

Uganda’s health ministry said it was vaccinating front-line health workers and people who had been in contact with the family. It said people should report any symptoms including unexplained bleeding from any body opening, vomiting of blood, bloody diarrhea and muscle pain.

It appealed to the public to “suspend social norms like shaking hands and hugging” and called on border districts to suspend mass gatherings such as weddings and markets and in places of worship. </s> Ebola has broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2013. Fully named Ebola virus disease (EVD), it crept over the DRC in an initial outbreak from 2013 to 2016 and killed more than 1,000 people. Despite intensive reworks to the West African nation’s healthcare administration, the disease still crops up. Smaller outbreaks sometimes spill over the border to neighbouring countries but are contained. Now Ebola has strayed to Uganda.

Ebola SPREADS: First case outside DR Congo emerges in Uganda

The latest confirmed case of Ebola is in a five-year-old child who crossed the border into Bwera, Uganda, near the Congolese city of Butembo on June 9.

The child’s family sought medical care in the city at the Kagando Hospital.

The child was transferred to Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit, followed by a rapid response team.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said the disease could now cause new cases to sprout over the border.

He said in a statement: “This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

“We can expect and should plan for more cases in DRC and neighbouring countries.

“The DRC should not have to face this alone.”

READ MORE: WHO warns of secret Ebola victims </s> The World Health Organization announced an emergency committee would meet Friday to determine whether to upgrade its assessment of the situation to “a public health emergency of international concern”.

WHO, in October and again in April, held off declaring the DRC epidemic an emergency of international concern, because the outbreak was contained to one part of DRC.

For the committee to make the emergency call, it must determine that the epidemic “carries implications for public health beyond the affected State’s national border and may require immediate international action”.

If such a declaration is made Friday it will represent a major shift in mobilisation against the disease.

The current Ebola epidemic began in August last year in eastern Congo and has already infected at least 2,062 people, killing 1,390 of them.

“This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon,” said Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity which is involved in fighting Ebola.

“We can expect and should plan for more cases in DRC and neighbouring countries,” he said, adding: “There are now more deaths than any other Ebola outbreak in history, bar the West Africa Epidemic of 2013-16, and there can be no doubt that the situation could escalate towards those terrible levels.”

The Red Cross said it was scaling up efforts to contain the spread of the virus since it was detected in Uganda.

“This is a worrying development, but we have been preparing for this day for months now,” Robert Kwesiga, Uganda Red Cross Secretary General, said in a statement Wednesday.

Experts noted that Uganda, which has been on high alert for possible spread of Ebola and has already vaccinated many frontline healthworkers, is relatively well prepared and should be able to limit the virus’ spread.

“The current cases in Uganda will be quickly contained but the failure to stop the current Ebola epidemic in DRC is simply tragic,” said Ian Jones, a professor virology at Britain’s Reading University.

At least two people have so far died of Ebola in Uganda, following Tuesday’s confirmation that the deadly virus had crossed into the country.

The five-year-old Congolese child who was the first recorded case in Uganda and its grandmother have both succumbed to the virus, at Bwere General Hospital, where an isolation facility has been established.

Authorities are now worried about the spread of the epidemic, after mire cases were confirmed on Wednesday.

“Two more samples … have tested positive,” the World Health Organization agency said on Twitter, citing the health minister and bringing the total tally of confirmed cases to three.

Local news channel, Daily Monitor, said Ebola cases in the country have risen to 10, citing the country’s health minister Dr. Ruth Aceng who said there are seven more suspects, including two men, two women and a six-months-old baby, who came from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A case of Ebola has been confirmed in Uganda, ten months after the deadly virus was confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 5-year-old Congolese child, who entered Uganda on June 9 through Bwera Border post, is receiving care, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

“This is the first confirmed case in Uganda during the Ebola outbreak on-going in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the WHO said in a statement.

The child’s family sought medical care at Kagando hospital and the child was transferred to Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit for management, the WHO said.

“The confirmation was made today by the Uganda Virus Institute (UVRI) …contacts are being monitored,” WHO said.

How the Ebola victim came to Uganda

The boy was accompanied by his Ugandan father and Congolese mother, who had returned to Congo to nurse her father before he died of Ebola, Uganda’s Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng told a news conference.

The family returned to Uganda with four other family members of Congolese origin, Aceng said. All the other Congolese family members are in isolation at Bwera Hospital. Two of them have already developed symptoms similar to those of Ebola and samples have been removed from them, Aceng said.

Results of tests are expected Wednesday. Eight more contacts are being followed up, Aceng said.

Aceng said the family entered Uganda on June 10, not 9. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear and neither the WHO nor the government was reachable for clarification.

Since the epidemic began in August in eastern Congo, the Congo health ministry said on Monday that it had recorded 2,062 cases, including 1,390 deaths.

Neighbouring Uganda has suffered regular outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg over the years, both high-fatality viral haemorrhagic fevers. Health facilities to treat the diseases are relatively robust.

A donor-supported laboratory in Entebbe, a lakeside town south of the capital Kampala, means Uganda typically confirms outbreaks much faster than many of its neighbours.

Preparing for possible cases of Ebola, Uganda has vaccinated nearly 4,700 health workers, disease monitoring has been intensified, special treatment units set up and health workers have been trained to recognize symptoms of the disease, WHO said.

Uganda’s worst Ebola outbreak was in 2000 when 425 people were infected. More than half of them died. </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo's health ministry says the latest Ebola outbreak has now become the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases.

The ministry said late Friday that the deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths.

This is Congo's 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said the figures now exceed that outbreak. He said no other epidemic has been as complex.

Armed groups vying for control of Congo's mineral-rich east have staged regular attacks in Congo's Ituri and North Kivu provinces, complicating the response by health officials who are also meeting community resistance. </s> The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization has declared, calling for more funds and support to close it down.

The second biggest Ebola outbreak ever, after the 2014-16 epidemic in west Africa, has reached a critical point with the diagnosis of a case in Goma, a city of 2 million people, which is a transport hub on the border with Rwanda. That follows the case last week of a women who crossed into Uganda to buy fish – and the arrival of a family harbouring the virus, three of whom died, in Uganda last month.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, appealed on Wednesday for the international community to help with funds. WHO is working on a new plan to control the epidemic, he said, which would cost “hundred of millions” of dollars.

“It is time for the world to take notice and redouble our efforts. We need to work together in solidarity with the DRC to end this outbreak and build a better health system,” said Tedros.

Ebola virus reaches Congolese city of Goma Read more

“Extraordinary work has been done for almost a year under the most difficult circumstances. We all owe it to these responders – coming from not just WHO but also government, partners and communities – to shoulder more of the burden.”

He has made previous appeals for donors to provide the money they have promised. So far, only about half the pledges have come in. The WHO was not aware of any donor who has withheld funding because an emergency had not been declared, he said, “but if that was the excuse, it can no longer be used”.

Tedros appealed for countries not to seal their borders or close down travel to the DRC, arguing that it would only harm the attempts to end the epidemic.

One year on from the start of the epidemic in North Kivu, there have been 2,512 cases of the disease and 676 deaths, most of which have been confirmed.

This is the second biggest Ebola outbreak, after the west Africa epidemic, where 28,616 cases of disease and 11,310 deaths were reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016.

The WHO is not only alarmed about the arrival of the virus in Uganda and on the Rwandan border, but also by the flare-up again in Beni. “The geographical expansion is now 500km,” said Prof Robert Steffen, chair of the IHR emergency committee on Ebola in DRC, as he announced their advice to Tedros.

The WHO’s declaration was widely applauded by Ebola experts and the aid organisations struggling with the epidemic on the ground.

“This is perhaps the most complicated epidemic the world has ever had to face, yet still the response in the DRC remains overstretched and underfunded,” said Dr Josie Golding, epidemics lead at Wellcome. “A step-up in the response, led by the DRC and with full international support, is critical if we are to bring the epidemic to an end. This must include enhanced diplomatic, public health, security and logistic efforts as well as releasing much needed financial resources.”

Larry Gostin, the director of the O’Neill Institute in Washington DC and an expert on global health law, said the announcement gave the clearest possible signal that the WHO needs more financial and human resources. “Without a surge response, it will be impossible to bring the DRC Ebola epidemic under control.”

He called for bold action. “Standard strategies like case identification, vaccination and treatment can’t succeed in a complex humanitarian crisis like the situation in the DRC. Responders in the field are facing intense violence along with deep community mistrust. They often can’t get into the hot zone due to escalating violence and they can’t find cases to vaccinate and treat because families are hiding the sick. There has been no clear strategy to break the vicious cycle of disease, violence and distrust.”

The status quo is no longer tenable, Gostin said. “The complacency in the international community, including the United States, is crippling the response.”

The British Red Cross, Mercy Corps and World Vision, all of which are working on the ground, said they hoped the declaration would lead to a significant scale-up in the response. “A huge push and significant funding across the region are now required to contain this outbreak and bring it to an end. Otherwise, there is a real risk we will see a catastrophic spread of this deadly virus,” said Sarah Clayton-Fisher of the British Red Cross.

The possible arrival of the virus in Goma has long been feared by the agencies responding to the outbreak, because of its density and the movement of people through it to Rwanda.

Ebola in the DRC: everything you need to know Read more

“Ring” vaccination of the contacts of those who fall ill and their contacts has not succeeded in limiting the spread of the virus. There is mistrust of the vaccine. Some people falsely believe that the vaccine is what is making people sick, in part because it cannot protect anyone who is already infected when they have the shot. It is also very hard to track and trace the friends and relatives of the sick in areas where violent conflict is taking place.

“If we cannot contain Ebola at the epicentre, we will continue to see cases spread to metropolitan areas and across borders,” said Bob Kitchen, International Rescue Committee’s vice-president for emergencies.

“The inability to build community trust has proven a major barrier to stopping the spread of this disease. Local communities are perplexed and frustrated by continued increase in the number of people dying juxtaposed with a massive influx of international organisations into the region during the past year.”

There have been four declarations of public health emergencies since 2005, when the WHO’s new regulations were introduced: swine flu in 2009, polio in 2014, when there was a resurgence after near-eradication, Ebola in west Africa in 2014 and the Zika virus in Brazil in 2016. </s> Congo's latest Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry said. The deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east, the ministry said. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths. Nearly 100 people have survived Ebola. This is Congo's 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku, in the Equateur province, the ministry said.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said late Friday that the figures now exceed that outbreak. "No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing," Kalenga said. "Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack."

This is the first time an Ebola outbreak has occurred in Congo's far northeast. The health ministry has said teams responding to the Ebola outbreak are attacked three or four times a week on average, a level of violence unseen in the country's nine previous outbreaks of the virus. Ebola is spread via the body fluids of infected people, including the dead. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Medical teams are vaccinating people to help stop the spread of the virus

The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the worst in the country's history, the health ministry says.

Almost 200 people have died since August, officials say, with more than 300 confirmed or probable cases.

A vaccination programme has so far inoculated about 25,000 people.

DR Congo has suffered long years of instability and efforts to relieve the disease have been hampered by attacks on medical workers.

"At this point, 319 cases and 198 deaths have been registered," health minister Oly Ilunga said.

"In view of these figures, my thoughts and my prayers go to the hundreds of families grieving, to the hundreds of orphans and the families which have been wiped out."

About half the victims were from Beni, a city of 800,000 in the North Kivu region, the national health authority said.

The current outbreak is the tenth DR Congo has suffered and the worst since the country's first epidemic in 1976, so early in the disease's history it had yet to be named.

The outbreak in 1976 of what was then an unknown disease in a remote part of DR Congo sparked terror, but was brought under control by experts quickly identifying the virus' nature and using quarantines.

Ebola is spread via small amounts of bodily fluid and infection often proves fatal.

Early symptoms are flu-like, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and internal and external bleeding.
Wellcome Trust director Dr. Jeremy Farrar says the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has killed 1,400 people since August 2018, is the worst since the 2013–2016 outbreak in West Africa and shows "no sign of stopping". Uganda reported its first two deaths.