Related videos:
The U.S. Department of State issued this week the highest travel advisory —Level 4, "Do Not Travel"— for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, and Uganda, due to the worsening outbreak of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, which has already resulted in over 130 deaths in the region.
In a statement released on Tuesday through its official account on social media platform X, the State Department "strongly urged" U.S. citizens to not travel to those three countries "for any reason" and to reconsider any travel to Rwanda, a country for which it raised the alert to Level 3.
In addition, in the case of Rwanda, a specific restriction is added: do not come within 10 kilometers of the border with the DRC.
The simultaneous issuance of Level 4 alerts for three African countries due to the same health issue is an extraordinarily unusual occurrence in the State Department's advisory system, which reserves that category for situations of war, extreme terrorism, or critically severe health emergencies.
The outbreak has its epicenter in the province of Ituri, in the conflict-ridden eastern part of Congo. The first alert was raised to the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 5, when an unknown disease with high mortality was reported in Mongbwalu, including the deaths of four healthcare workers within four days. The outbreak was officially declared on May 15 and is the seventeenth recorded in the DRC since the virus was first identified in 1976.
Victim numbers vary by source: the Congolese Minister of Health, Roger Kamba, reported 131 likely deaths; the Government spokesperson, Patrick Muyaya, estimated 116 suspected deaths; and the WHO maintains 88 confirmed fatalities, including one case in Uganda. The international organization warned that "the outbreak is potentially much larger than what has been detected so far."
The virus has already reached the capital, Kinshasa, and Goma, with confirmed cases in Kampala and near the Congolese border in South Sudan. Muyaya warned that "this spread of the disease to new areas raises concerns about the risk of increased transmission in densely populated regions, characterized by significant population movements."
One day earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. announced 30-day entry restrictions for non-U.S. citizens who had been in Uganda, the DRC, or South Sudan in the previous 21 days, effective immediately.
The Bundibugyo strain does not have an approved vaccine or specific treatment, unlike the Zaire variant. Its fatality rate ranges from 25% to 40%, according to Doctors Without Borders. This is only the third outbreak of this variant in history, following those recorded in Uganda between 2007 and 2008 and in the DRC itself in 2012.
The control of the outbreak faces serious obstacles: in Ituri, more than 100 armed groups are operating, and there are over 273,000 internally displaced persons, according to the UN, which complicates healthcare deployment and promotes unsafe burial practices that accelerate transmission.
The WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 16, and sent 18 tons of medical supplies to the area. Global fear of the advancing Ebola grows as the virus spreads to new cities and countries in the region.
Filed under: