Alarming Ebola Spread Raises Question Of Viral Mutation
Health experts are investigating whether the Ebola Bundibugyo variant is mutating due to an unprecedented surge in cases and deaths in the DRC. International health leaders are calling for urgent community-led responses to curb the transmission.
Why it matters
The potential mutation of a deadly virus represents a major escalation in the public health crisis, requiring immediate scientific and humanitarian attention.
Over 4,000 Ebola Bundibugyo cases and 1,800 deaths have been recorded so far in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – numbers so alarming that health experts intend to research whether the virus is mutating to become more infectious.
This was revealed by Dr Jean Kaseya, the Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, at a media briefing on Thursday.
In the past 12 weeks, the current outbreak has grown at eight times the pace of the world’s biggest Ebola outbreak, which took place in West Africa between 2018 and 2020.
Every day in the past week, 75 new cases and 35 deaths have been recorded.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in