Ebola cases traced to Congo province bordering on South Sudan

Three people exposed to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been traced to a province bordering South Sudan, increasing the chances the virus could spill into one of the world’s most fragile states.

Any outbreak in the Haut-Uele region would significantly raise the threat to neighboring South Sudan, which is “a high-risk country because of its proximity to the affected areas and cross-border population movement”, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a response to questions on June 30.

The new infections involve two of the contacts of a confirmed Ituri case, who then travelled to Haut-Uele and were later diagnosed there, Congo’s government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said.

“This proves that surveillance is working and that we are successfully tracing contacts with the aim of breaking the chain of transmission,” he said.

The expansion, which was reported earlier by Agence France-Presse, underscores concern about the spread of the Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or specific treatment. Ituri, the conflict-ridden epicenter, has recorded 1,165 cases and 301 deaths.

“We’re worried about it spreading to South Sudan, which is very vulnerable,” Samantha Nutt, founder and president of War Child Canada, said in an interview, expressing concern the virus could already have crossed the border.

Unlike Congo, which has built up experience responding to repeated Ebola outbreaks, South Sudan lacks the health infrastructure and trained workforce needed to contain the disease, Nutt said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has also warned that South Sudan faces a high risk of Ebola transmission because of movement across its borders with Congo and Uganda. While South Sudan has activated a national preparedness and response plan covering 15 priority counties, the UN said urgent additional investment is needed.

More than half of South Sudan’s population already faces acute food insecurity, while a cholera outbreak declared in September 2024 has sickened more than 105,000 people and killed more than 1,600. At the same time, less than a third of the funding needed for the country’s broader humanitarian effort this year has been secured. BLOOMBERG