The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo may have started earlier than previously thought, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva.
Three Red Cross volunteers are believed to have become infected as early as March 27 when they came into contact with bodies in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the IFRC said on Saturday.
They had been working on another humanitarian mission before it became known that the Ebola virus was spreading. According to the report, they died between May 5 and May 16.
Until now, the earliest known infection in the current outbreak was a man from the Congo who was treated for symptoms on April 24 and died three days later.
The first Ebola cases were not confirmed in the laboratory until May 15. On May 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern. By that point, there were already more than 240 known suspected infections.
Experts believe the outbreak went undetected for weeks. Clusters of unexplained deaths had already been investigated previously.
However, as the current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, the pathogen was not initially confirmed using conventional tests.
According to WHO figures, there are almost 750 suspected cases and just under 180 suspected deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report indicates that 83 infections with the Ebola virus, including 9 deaths, have been laboratory-confirmed in the country.
For the first time since last week, neighbouring Uganda has also reported three new confirmed infections with the virus. Two of them, a driver and a nurse, had come into contact with the country’s first known case last week, the Ugandan Ministry of Health said.
This brings Uganda’s total to five confirmed cases. The country does not publish figures on suspected cases.
The third case is a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo who had travelled by plane to the Ugandan capital, Kampala. She was treated there for abdominal pain and then returned home.
A sample taken from her has since tested positive for Ebola, it was reported. All contacts of the three infected individuals have been identified and are being monitored and traced with regard to their contacts.
Ebola is a contagious and life-threatening infectious disease. The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain because there is neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment for the rare Bundibugyo strain.
The WHO considers the risk of infection to be very high in the Congo, high in the region, but low globally. Unlike the coronavirus, for example, Ebola is not transmitted via airborne droplets, but through close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
