LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Ebola in central Africa is a global health emergency. The World Health Organization made the declaration over the weekend.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The outbreak has killed more than 80 people. At least 336 have gotten sick. It started in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spread to Uganda. Other countries nearby are on alert.
FADEL: Here with the latest is NPR's global health correspondent Jonathan Lambert. Hi, Jonathan.
JONATHAN LAMBERT, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: So why is this outbreak worrying the WHO?
LAMBERT: Well, for one, Ebola is a really serious disease.
FADEL: Yeah.
LAMBERT: The virus kills about half the people it infects and can spread through contact with bodily fluids. Now, the DRC has lots of experience with Ebola. Just last year, there was an outbreak that killed 45 people over the course of a few months. This one is worrying because the death toll is already much higher than that, and it was only announced on Friday. That's part of why an emergency was declared the next day. I track outbreaks like these pretty closely, and when I saw the announcement, I had this moment of panic that I'd somehow missed earlier reports. The numbers just seem too big for a new outbreak. Now we've learned that the first suspected cases likely popped up in late April.
FADEL: So it took more than three weeks to recognize Ebola was spreading? Why did it take so long?
LAMBERT: One factor may be the kind of Ebola that's spreading. It's a rare strain called Bundibugyo, and standard field tests often miss it. Samples had to be sent to larger labs for analysis, and in a big country like DRC, that can take time. Historically, that kind of surveillance was supported by U.S. foreign aid. I asked Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease physician at Emory, whether last year's massive aid cuts might have delayed the response, and here's what she had to say.
BOGHUMA TITANJI: Certainly, having less foreign aid and less funding limits what countries are able to do in terms of their response capacity.
LAMBERT: On a CDC press call yesterday, I asked this question. Satish Pillai, the Ebola response manager, didn't answer it directly, but he did say that CDC was only notified of the first case just last Thursday and that difficult conditions in the area likely delayed the response.
FADEL: Why is it so hard to trace the disease?
LAMBERT: It's in a pretty remote area. It's rural northeast DRC. It borders Uganda and South Sudan, and there's a lot of ongoing conflict there. It's also an active mining area, so there are a lot of transient workers coming and going. That could spread the virus to urban centers, and that seems to already be happening. At least two cases, including one death, have already been reported in Uganda's capital, Kampala. If the virus continues to spread in more urban connected areas like that, it could really take off.
FADEL: Are health officials concerned that this could become a pandemic?
LAMBERT: Right now, there's not really a pandemic risk. Ebola is a lot harder to transmit than an airborne disease like COVID. Plus, previous Ebola outbreaks haven't sparked pandemics. But this is still a very serious threat to the region. Part of that is the fact that the outbreak got so big so fast. And because this is a rare strain of Ebola, there aren't approved vaccines or treatments for it, and that could make containing the disease a lot harder.
FADEL: So what are health officials doing to respond?
LAMBERT: Right now, international health agencies are scrambling to send staff and supplies, and the U.S. CDC is sending more staff, too. They'll all be focused on identifying cases, caring for patients and isolating their contacts to limit the spread of the disease. But it's still really early days, and the outbreak right now is likely much bigger than officials know.
FADEL: That's NPR's Jonathan Lambert. Thank you for your reporting, Jonathan.
LAMBERT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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