The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention elevated its response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda to Level 1, the agency’s highest activation level, on Friday as the World Health Organization confirmed more than 1,000 cases and more than 260 deaths since the outbreak began in May.
Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incidence manager, said the escalation reflects the urgency of a rapidly spreading outbreak that has crossed international borders. “Elevating the response level reflects the urgency, scale and complexity of the outbreak, and allows [the] CDC to bring additional resources to support the coordination and operational needs of our response,” Pillai told reporters.
The outbreak, first declared in May, has been concentrated in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, with cases spreading into neighboring Uganda. The virus involved is the Bundibugyo strain, a rarer subtype of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutic treatments, according to the WHO. Unlike the Zaire strain — which caused the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic and for which the Ervebo vaccine exists — Bundibugyo has no licensed countermeasures, complicating containment efforts.
Earlier this month, CDC models projected the outbreak could grow to as many as 20,000 cases if control measures are not rapidly scaled up, MSI previously reported.
The Level 1 activation is the CDC’s most serious classification, signaling that the agency is mobilizing its full incident management structure, deploying additional staff and resources, and treating the response as a top organizational priority. Despite the elevated posture, Pillai said the risk of the disease spreading within the United States remains low.
Ebola, first identified in central Africa in 1976, has an incubation period of two to 21 days. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and in some cases internal and external bleeding. The virus can be transmitted from animals to humans and through human-to-human contact, including sexual contact. While no specific treatment exists, patients can survive with supportive care including oral and intravenous fluids and immune and drug therapies.
The WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on May 16, warning that the response required urgent scale-up. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention first confirmed the outbreak in Congo’s Ituri province on May 15, reporting 336 suspected cases and 88 deaths at the time. Since then, the case count has more than tripled, according to WHO figures.