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The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reported this Friday of 750 cases and 177 suspected deaths due to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), warning that the actual scale of the outbreak could be "much greater."
The WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on May 17, in an unprecedented decision: it was the first time that a director-general of the organization issued such an alert without previously convening an emergency committee, reflecting the perceived urgency due to the rapid spread of the epidemic.
In response, the United States has adopted progressively stricter control measures. On May 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order under Title 42 that suspends for 30 days the entry of foreigners who have been in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan in the previous 21 days. The restriction applies to flights that departed after 11:59 p.m. on May 20.
U.S. citizens and permanent residents returning from those countries are redirected to Washington Dulles International Airport for enhanced health screenings that include temperature checks, travel history questionnaires, and follow-up via text messages for 21 days.
The State Department raised travel alerts on May 19 to Level 4 ("Do Not Travel") for the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan, and to Level 3 for Rwanda. The simultaneous issuance of Level 4 alerts for three countries due to the same health issue is an extraordinarily unusual occurrence.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio was clear in establishing Washington's priorities: "Our number one priority will always be to ensure that Ebola does not reach the United States. That is our foremost obligation." Rubio also acknowledged that the response was late: "I wish we had started on this two weeks ago."
Rubio also criticized the WHO for being "late" in identifying the strain, stating that the organization "failed miserably during COVID, covering for China." Tedros responded that such criticisms might stem from a "lack of understanding" of the International Health Regulations, and explained that the confirmation was delayed until May 14 because the initial tests came back negative and the samples had to be sent to a laboratory in Kinshasa, 1,700 kilometers from the epicenter.
The practical application of the restrictions has already resulted in an airborne incident: the Air France flight AFR378 heading to Detroit was diverted to Montreal this Friday because it had a passenger on board from the DR Congo who should not have boarded. The passenger, who was asymptomatic, returned to Paris, while the rest of the travelers continued on to Detroit.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, the rarest variant of the virus, which has no approved vaccine or specific treatment and has a fatality rate between 25% and 40%. The epicenter is located in Ituri province, in the conflict-ridden eastern Congo, where over 100 armed groups operate and more than 273,000 internally displaced persons are reported by the UN.
The WHO assesses the risk as low at the global level, but high in the DRC and in the sub-Saharan African region. In Uganda, the situation is "stable," with only two confirmed cases and one death, and no new infections reported.
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