World Health Organization

A Russian agency links the lab worker’s death to ‘pneumonia of unknown’ origin.

An employee of a Russian anti-plague institute in the remote Siberian region of Irkutsk has reportedly died of a suspected pneumonic plague infection, according to a United States official.

“We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and our other interagency partners,” a State Department official told Al Jazeera

“Many details have not been confirmed. We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” the official said.

Alexei Tsydenov, the governor of the Buryatia region, said in a post on his Telegram channel on October 3 that a woman in the neighbouring Irkutsk region had “died, maybe of the plague”.

Russia’s official TASS news agency reported on Sunday that the country’s consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said in a statement that an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.

The watchdog also said it expanded testing of samples from the patient and found no microorganisms associated with her professional activities.

Pneumonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the plague is highly infectious and can be fatal if not treated early.

Local media named the woman who died as 28-year-old laboratory technician Darya Shipilova.

Media reports say that authorities in Siberia’s Irkutsk region have placed nearly 200 people under medical observation.

Fatalities reached 3,901 across the DRC as health workers battle community anger and a vaccine-resistant strain.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recorded over 8,000 cases of Ebola, including almost 4,000 deaths, amid the worst outbreak in the country’s history, according to government data.

The latest report, published on Monday by the DRC’s public health institute, put the number of cases at 8,067 ⁠⁠and deaths at ⁠⁠3,901, representing a fatality rate of 48.4 percent.

People’s mistrust and anger towards government policies have become a major obstacle in limiting the outbreak since it was officially declared on May 15. A senior ‌‌member of the ruling UDPS party was beaten to death after raising awareness about the epidemic on radio, a party representative said on Monday. The ⁠⁠killing happened on Sunday in Butembo in North Kivu province, which has become a hotspot in the ongoing Ebola outbreak.

The number of cases has levelled off after a rapid increase, according to the African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC, though it still considers the outbreak “not under control”.

Several treatments and vaccines are being trialled against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.

The current outbreak, which is the DRC’s 17th, has spread rapidly. Experts say that weak health infrastructure, the region’s remoteness and ongoing conflict near the DRC’s borders with South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda have damaged efforts to respond to cases quickly and effectively.

Those issues have also hindered the government’s efforts to fight the outbreak, increasing public mistrust and anger towards its suggested prevention measures.

Marie-Celestin ⁠⁠Karondwa, acting president of the UDPS party’s federal executive committee in Butembo, was attacked by local residents after appearing on a radio show where he discussed Ebola prevention measures, according to the Congolese health authorities.

In their latest case report, authorities highlighted a “low capacity” to treat cases at health centres in Ituri province and described a “complete shortage” of stocks of an experimental vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain in the northeastern province of Tshopo, where cases have been recorded.

The World Health Organization has said the outbreak is “far from over” and on track to surpass the regional 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak. It killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The United States announced last week that it was releasing a further $267 million to help fight Ebola. It is hoping for pledges from other countries to meet a target of $2 billion to fight the disease, mainly found in the DRC.

Health workers struggle as new Ebola cases are found in border regions of South Ubangi and Haut-Uele.

The Ebola virus caused by the Bundibugyo strain has spread to two new health zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

New cases were found in Bulu in South Ubangi governorate on the border with the Central African Republic and Dungu in Haut-Uele province on the border with South Sudan, the WHO said on Friday.

The additional cases bring the number of health zones affected to 63 across seven provinces as authorities struggle to control the outbreak.

As of September 23, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, has reported 7,890 confirmed cases and 3,799 deaths, according to the WHO. That means that almost half the people who contracted the infection have died.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said conflict and population displacement were making it more difficult for health workers to reach ‌‌affected communities and trace people who may have been exposed to the virus.

“It’s very difficult to see Ebola in isolation because even our response to Ebola is affected by the conflict, because there is displacement and there is an access problem to some areas,” Tedros said.

The Bundibugyo strain is difficult to treat because there are no approved vaccines, Tedros said, adding that the WHO is accelerating clinical trials of vaccines and treatments.

Contact tracing falling short

Meanwhile, health workers looking for people who may have been exposed to the Bundibugyo strain are falling short of their targets.

According to Dr Jean Kaseya, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the more than 7,000 confirmed cases should translate to about 420,000 contacts.

“But currently, we have just 30,000 people in the contact list,” Kaseya said.

“When the outbreak is at community level, we cannot talk about control,” he added.

Ituri province in northeastern DRC continues to be the epicentre of the outbreak, accounting for 6,032 confirmed cases since the start of the epidemic in May, including 868 new confirmed cases reported in the last 21 days.

North Kivu is the second most affected province, with 1,480 new cases, including 567 reported in the last 21 days. The province now accounts for around a third of newly confirmed cases and deaths, the WHO said in a report on Sunday.

Nearly 60 percent of people diagnosed in North Kivu died, significantly higher than the national average of 48 percent, the data show.

Medical staff say patients are avoiding health facilities until it is too late.

“Patients think that if they arrive at the hospital, they will be immediately sent to the treatment centre to die,” said Dr Michel Paluku Mukuloli, who works at a hospital in North Kivu’s Butembo.

That complicates efforts to identify cases and start treatment before the disease reaches its most dangerous stages.

North Kivu was the epicentre of three previous Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2018-2020, which until this year was the DRC’s largest and deadliest. Those outbreaks, however, were caused by a different type of Ebola virus, known as the Zaire strain.

Much less is known about the Bundibugyo strain. But responders say in the early stages of infection, patients often experience milder symptoms easily mistaken for more common diseases such as malaria and typhoid fever.

50,000 frontline staff to receive a jab for a different Ebola strain, with 20,000 enrolled in a one-year clinical trial.

Health workers in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have begun to receive a vaccine that many hope will provide a level of protection against the Ebola virus.

The vaccine rollout started on Saturday in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province in the northeastern DRC. Ituri is the epicentre of the fastest-growing outbreak of Ebola in history.

The provincial governor, Major-General Gaby Kasongo Mulumba, said health workers there “are particularly exposed and deeply involved in the response”.

The operation, backed by the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, will also target North Kivu, where cases have been rising sharply, health authorities said.

Some 50,000 health and other frontline workers will be injected with the Ervebo vaccine, which was developed for use against the more common Zaire strain.

Its effectiveness against the current Ebola strain caused by the Bundibugyo virus will be monitored in 20,000 recipients for up to one year.

Clinical trials are ongoing to find a licensed vaccine for the latest outbreak, which has no licensed vaccine or proven treatment.

“We don’t know to what degree it might be effective against the Bundibugyo strain,” Steve Ahuka, a Congolese official who is part of the health task force against the Ebola outbreak, said.

Dr Jeannot Elua said at a health facility in Bunia the vaccine was “beneficial”.

“We healthcare workers don’t really have a choice. We are going to receive it,” he told the Associated Press news agency. “Some people here had already received the previous vaccine. I received it myself, because it was mandatory.”

WHO experts have said that early data on the Ervebo vaccine, notably from animal trials, suggested it could offer some protection in the current outbreak.

The virus has killed at least 3,639 and infected some 7,541 people since May. Some 1,823 people have recovered, according to the latest figures from local authorities.

The WHO said in August that 70,000 doses of Ervebo were approved for use in the DRC.

The vaccine is being used under a compassionate-use programme, which allows a medical product to be used in a serious disease situation even though it has not been specifically approved for that particular use.

While WHO officials have cited “encouraging signs” that transmission may be slowing, MSF warned on Friday that there is no clear evidence the epidemic is coming under control.