DR Congo Ebola outbreak kills three Red Cross volunteers in Ituri

Three Red Cross volunteers have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after suspected exposure to Ebola while handling dead bodies in the eastern province of Ituri. The volunteers were working in Mongbwalu, which is now considered the epicentre of the outbreak, and the deaths were reported between 5 and 16 May. The outbreak had not been identified when they were carrying out the work in late March, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

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The volunteers have been named as Alikana Udumusi Augustin, Sezabo Katanabo and Ajiko Chandiru Viviane. The federation said they were believed to have contracted the virus on 27 March while working on a project unrelated to Ebola. It said they died after serving their communities with courage and humanity.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that it had raised the public health risk in DR Congo from high to very high, while the risk across the wider region in Africa remained high and the global risk low. The outbreak has so far been linked to more than 170 suspected deaths and 750 suspected cases, according to the figures cited. Health experts say Ebola can spread through contact with the body of someone who has died from the disease because bodily fluids remain highly infectious after death.

The strain involved is Bundibugyo, a rare species of Ebola that has no proven vaccine and is said to kill about a third of those infected. In neighbouring Uganda, the health ministry confirmed three new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of confirmed infections there to five. The situation matters because it is now a cross-border public health emergency with confirmed deaths among aid workers and a rising regional risk assessment.

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The outbreak in eastern DR Congo comes at a time when health authorities are also warning that other countries in the region could be affected. The African Centres for Disease Control said 10 other countries were at risk, including Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. The deaths of the volunteers also underline the difficulty of responding to Ebola in communities where the virus may not yet have been identified.

The work they were doing involved managing dead bodies, a known high-risk activity when Ebola is present. In Mongbwalu, the response has already faced disruption, with a tent provided by Médecins Sans Frontières to treat Ebola patients burnt on Friday. The previous day, an angry crowd elsewhere in Ituri set alight part of a hospital after the outbreak had already begun to unsettle local communities.

What remains unclear is how widely the virus has spread in Ituri and how many of the suspected cases will be confirmed as Ebola. It is also not yet clear how much further the outbreak may extend beyond DR Congo and Uganda. The key issues to watch are whether community engagement improves, whether health facilities can continue operating safely, and whether the regional alerts lead to faster containment measures.

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