A new Ebola outbreak has been declared. Here’s what we know

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has declared a new Ebola outbreak in Kasai Province. It’s caused by the most severe strain: the Zaire Ebola virus.

This outbreak began with a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was admitted to hospital on August 20 and died five days later. Two health workers who treated her also became infected and died. By September 15, there were 81 confirmed cases and 28 deaths, including four health workers.

The DRC has had 15 prior Ebola epidemics, with the largest in 2019 and the most recent in 2022.

But genetic analysis shows the outbreak likely began after a spillover from an animal to a human, rather than a continuation of earlier outbreaks.

Ebola virus disease was first identified in 1976 in a village near the Ebola River in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Sudan (now South Sudan).

Fruit bats are the natural host of the virus. Humans may become infected after contact with animals such as bats, chimpanzees, antelope or porcupines.

Ebola mainly spreads through direct contact with blood or other body fluids. It can take between two to 21 days for symptoms to appear.

Symptoms can be sudden: fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headaches and sore throat start first, then progress to vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, rash, bleeding and shock.

Without early treatment, the death rate can reach 50–90%, and it depends on the availability of high-quality health care.

Ebola can spread rapidly within families, health-care facilities and during funerals, where many people gather and the bodies are washed or touched. During the largest recorded epidemic in 2014, more than 800 health workers were infected and two-thirds died.

Nurses and other front-line staff can become infected through close contact with infected patients, needle stick injuries or due to inadequate protective gear.

Survivors can also carry the virus in certain parts of the body that are sheltered from the immune system – such as the brain, eyes or semen – for months or years.

In rare instances, Ebola can “reactivate” in a survivor and trigger new transmission chains.

The largest Ebola epidemic on record began in Guinea in 2013 and spread into Liberia and Sierra Leone. It infected more than 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000.

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