A fresh outbreak of Ebola has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just days after the country declared itself free of the deadly virus.

It is not yet known whether the new cases are caused by the same strain of the virus as the last outbreak, which began in May.

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Thursday that it may be impossible to use a vaccine to tackle the resurgence of the virus, which has already spread over dozens of kilometres.

According to the country’s government, the latest flare-up has so far claimed the lives of 20 people, including two health workers. Four other people have tested positive for the virus.

Peter Salama, the WHO’s emergency response chief, said it was hard to determine which of three possible strains of Ebola was behind the outbreak.

The Merck vaccine used during the recent outbreak would be a potential option if the Zaire strain was at work, said Salama.

However, he warned that it was equally likely to be the Sudan or Bundibugyo strain, which would make the situation much more complex.

“We may not have any vaccine options,” Salama told Reuters at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, although he added that the high death rate suggested the Zaire strain could be the culprit.

The WHO said it had started to move staff and supplies to the affected area in North Kivu province, in the east of the country, where an international delegation has already arrived.



The previous outbreak, which began in May in the north-west, killed 29 people before it was officially declared over on 24 July.

“Ebola is a constant threat in the DRC,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.

“What adds to our confidence in the country’s ability to respond is the transparency they have displayed once again. Working closely with the ministry of health and partners, we will fight this one as we did the last.”

Preliminary laboratory results have confirmed a new cluster of cases in the Mangina area near Beni, a densely populated town, about 2,500 km from the last flare-up. Two health workers were among those affected, the WHO said.

The majority of the new cases occurred in the second half of July, Salama said, but he said that provincial teams had noted fresh cases that could be consistent with the previous outbreak in May. The type of virus was not yet known, but the death rate suggests it could the Zaire strain, he said.

Jose Barahona, Oxfam country director for the DRC, said the outbreak presented a serious risk to communities in Beni, where thousands of people are already facing hardship.

“This outbreak comes at a time when the country is already unstable, with millions of people caught up in humanitarian crises as a result of ongoing conflicts,” said Barahona.

“Beni has been deeply unstable for the past few years due to armed conflict and Ebola poses a serious risk to communities already on the edge, and threatens our ability to help them.”

DRC has successfully contained and closed down nine Ebola outbreaks in the past decade.

The government confirmed to the WHO on Wednesday that four out of six samples tested for Ebola virus at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa returned a positive result. They were quick to provide public updates, with press releases issued on 31 July and 1 August, the WHO said. Further testing is ongoing.

“Since we are coming out of another Ebola outbreak, we have kept staff and equipment in place,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa. “This allows us to have a head start in response to this cluster.”

The resurgence of the disease in North Kivu, an active conflict area that houses more than 1 million displaced people, will present fresh challenges to the authorities.

“This new cluster is occurring in an environment which is very different from where we were operating in the north-west,” said Dr Peter Salama, the WHO’s deputy director general of emergency preparedness and response. “This is an active conflict zone. The major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population.”

The province shares a border with Rwanda and Uganda, and cross-border movement is common.

The west Africa outbreak that claimed 11,000 lives three years ago was so deadly partly because the disease had never been seen in that region before. The failure to identify the nature of the problem meant there was no immediate announcement of an outbreak, with the WHO heavily criticised for its slow response.