By Emily Joshu Sterne, U.S. Assistant Health Editor | Daily Mail
An American based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has contractedEbola in the African nation’s latest outbreak.
The CDC said Monday that an American doctor working with a medical missionary organisation in the DRC developed Ebola after being exposed through work.
The unidentified individual developed symptoms, which can include sudden fever, intense weakness, severe headache, sore throat and muscle and joint pain.
The infected American is being evacuated to Germany, the CDC said. It’s unclear specifically why Germany was chosen, but it is home to the US Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre, which has specialised wards equipped to handle infectious diseases.
An additional six individuals are also in the process of being evacuated to receive treatment or monitoring, Satish K Pillai, an incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, said in a press conference.
About 25 people are working in the US office in the DRC, and the CDC said it is sending another person to the region from Atlanta.
The CDC said it assessed the immediate risk to the general US public as low, but we will continue to evaluate the evolving situation and may adjust public health measures as additional information becomes available.’
The case comes amid an outbreak of Ebola caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has killed 88 people in the DRC since last month. There have been 1 confirmed case and 336 suspected incidents. Among the dead are at least four healthcare workers.
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where the virus is endemic, since it was discovered in 1976, but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain.
This strain currently has no approved treatments or vaccines, leaving those infected with few options and elevating the risk.
The CDC also announced Monday that it will increase screening and traveller monitoring for people arriving from areas affected by Ebola outbreaks and will restrict non-US passport holders who have been in Uganda, the DRC, or South Sudan in the past 21 days.
The agency also plans to coordinate with airlines, international partners and port-of-entry officials to identify and manage travellers who may have been exposed to Ebola.
‘CDC is also supporting interagency partners who are actively coordinating the safe withdrawal of a small number of Americans who are directly affected by this outbreak,’ the CDC said.
The CDC has issued a level 2 travel advisory for the DRC, which urges travellers to ‘practice enhanced precautions’ while in the region. These include avoiding contact with people who have symptoms such as fever, muscle pain and rash, as well as steering clear of blood and other body fluids or objects contaminated with them.
Travellers should also avoid contact with bats, forest antelopes, primates and blood, fluids or meat from these animals.
The CDC urges travellers to watch for Ebola symptoms for 21 days after leaving the DRC.
Previous outbreaks in 2018 and 2020 in eastern Congo killed more than 1,000 people each. The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa when more than 28,600 cases were reported.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the current outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency, but it is considered a ‘public health emergency of international concern.’
Countries bordering the DRC, such as Uganda and Rwanda, are at increased risk of further spread.
Ebola spreads through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, as well as contact with contaminated objects or infected animals such as bats or primates.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and weakness, diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
The mortality rate for the Bundibugyo virus ranges from 25 to 50 per cent.
The Zaire strain, which is the most common form of Ebola, can be treated with the drugs Inmazeb and Ebanga and the Ervebo vaccine, which is administered only during outbreaks.
‘Unfortunately, Bundibugyo has fewer proven countermeasures than Zaire ebolavirus, where vaccines have been highly effective in controlling outbreaks,’ Amanda Rojek, Associate Professor of Health Emergencies, Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.
The WHO said Sunday that the first known suspected case, a health worker in DRC, developed symptoms on April 24. Two infected people from DRC travelled separately from each other to Kampala, the capital of neighbouring Uganda, where one died.
The WHO said there is no indication of ongoing transmission in Uganda.
