The crisis involves the “Bundibugyo” strain of the Ebola virus, a rarer strain that — crucially — has no approved vaccine specifically targeting it and no specific treatment of its own.
The World Health Organization reports that “the number of confirmed cases has now reached 5,794, with 2,786 deaths recorded, representing a staggering fatality rate of 48.1%.”
The virus has spread across 60 health zones in six provinces, with the outbreak concentrated in the Ituri and North Kivu regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
What makes the situation even more dangerous is that the Bundibugyo strain does not always cause the distinctive symptoms that many people associate with Ebola.
Instead, the early symptoms of the disease may resemble those of the flu or malaria, such as fever, fatigue, and headaches. This may lead infected people to stay at home and delay isolating themselves, thereby increasing the risk of the infection spreading further.