The world’s media has spent weeks worrying about an outbreak of hantavirus on a small cruise ship. Meanwhile a more dangerous pathogen, one that kills up to half the people it infects, has been quietly spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latest outbreak of Ebola disease, a haemorrhagic fever, is suspected to have already killed at least 131 people and infected more than 500. It has appeared in multiple locations in eastern DR Congo, and in Kinshasa, the capital, 2,000km away. It has also jumped to neighbouring Uganda.
The particular virus species, Bundibugyo, cannot be easily diagnosed with standard kits. Nor is it treatable with approved vaccines or medicines. The virus’s stealth progress prompted the World Health Organization this weekend to declare it an emergency of international concern.
The latest Ebola outbreak, the 17th in DR Congo since the virus was first identified in 1976, underlines the threat of zoonotic diseases, which jump from animals to people. Deforestation, human encroachment and climate change have multiplied the dangers.