Italian Doctor in Quarantine After Ebola Contact as DRC Outbreak Worsens Amid Conflict and Vaccine Gap

The outbreak in figures

As of 24 May, over 900 suspected Ebola cases had been reported in the DRC, along with 220 suspected deaths. Among these, 101 cases have been laboratory-confirmed, including 10 fatalities. Uganda has recorded seven confirmed cases with one death. The virus has spread to three Congolese provinces and crossed into Uganda, and the World Health Organisation believes the official numbers likely underestimate the true scale.

A strain without a vaccine

The outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola for which no vaccine or targeted treatment is currently authorised. Two existing vaccines protect against the Zaire strain but provide no cross-protection. Médecins Sans Frontières notes that Bundibugyo even escapes routine diagnostic tests, making case identification harder. Two candidate vaccines are in development, but they are months away from availability.

This outbreak presents challenges we have never faced in outbreaks in recent years.

Conflict as a barrier to containment

Ongoing fighting in eastern DRC is severely hampering the response. Population displacements are forcing exposed individuals into overcrowded camps, and attacks on health facilities have made contact tracing nearly impossible. M23 rebels are reportedly blocking deliveries of protective equipment and medicines, while Rwanda has closed its border. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is due to visit the epicentre in Bunia on Friday, has called for an urgent humanitarian truce.

It is impossible to build trust within communities or isolate the sick under bombardment.

Italian surgeon under surveillance

An Italian female MSF surgeon, who worked at the Salamat health centre in Bunia, had direct contact with patients who later tested positive for Ebola on 16 May. Two days later, she performed lifesaving emergency surgery on a child injured by a grenade; that child is a suspected Ebola case pending test results. The doctor has shown no symptoms and returned to Rome on 27 May. She was immediately transferred to the Spallanzani infectious-disease hospital for quarantine and active surveillance. Italy’s health ministry stressed no Ebola cases are present in the country and the risk remains very low.

International mobilisation

Italy’s cooperation service has allocated €1.15 million to support the humanitarian response, targeting Ituri, Nord Kivu, and Sud Kivu. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is stepping up field support but assesses the infection risk for the general population in Europe as very low. The current epidemic, it said, “is of serious concern and, in many respects, is not comparable to previous Ebola outbreaks.”