Health experts sound alarm as Ebola deaths rise in Congo and Uganda

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Let's continue on though here on Live Now from Fox detailing some of the top stories as right now here on this Sunday. We're watching another potential major health uh drawing threat drawing global attention. That being Ebola as the World Health Organization declaring the Ebola disease outbreak, a global health emergency caused by a very rare and contagious virus. this from the WHO earlier today saying in the Congo and neighboring Uganda public health emergency on an international concern saying more than 300 suspected cases 88 deaths the WH on social media says that a laboratory confirmed case was also reported in Kongo's capital Kinasha which is about a thousand kilometers from the outbreak's epicenter in the eastern province suggesting a wider spread and there's concerns about this exact strain let's take you out to some African health officials on what they are seeing with this outbreak.

[00:01:00]>> So many strengths. What is known mostly is what we call the zer strength that is killing so many people and the case fatality rate is more than 70 80% if there is no support. Fortunately, we have medicines and vaccines for desire strain. But the second one, the Sudan strength and the bud we are talking about we don't have vaccine we don't have uh medicine Ebola >> and that is obviously one of the main concerns the lack of vaccine the lacks of treatment but also the high potential mortality rate with this strain of Ebola. Let's bring into the conversation right now infectious disease specialist with John Hopkins University Dr. Ash Adalgia. Thank you so much for joining us here on live now from Fox. The WH saying this is a global health emergency. How worrying is it?

[00:01:56]>> It's definitely worrying for the region because what we know is that this outbreak has probably been going on for some time because there's 246 cases already. So, there's probably been weeks that these cases have went undiagnosed.

[00:02:08]We have spread to Uganda as well, the neighboring country. And it's in an area of the DRC that is very remote, very hard to get resources to. And you have to remember that's a country that is torn by strife and civil war that makes it very logistically challenging. And to top it off, it's an Ebola strain for which we don't have vaccines, for which we don't have monoconal antibodies. So it is going to be very challenging for that region. It doesn't pose a threat to the world, but this is something that needs to be contained and have resources brought to bear as soon as possible.

[00:02:38]>> Can you give us some understanding what Ebola is? obviously a little bit more common for average Americans, average people than we would say with Honda virus. What is Ebola? What characteristics stand out?

[00:02:49]>> So Ebola is a virus that has been found in Africa at least since 1976. It existed before that, but that was the first documented outbreak and it is what we call a viral hemorrhagic fever. So in some cases, what it does is it interferes with your blood's ability to clot and causes you to hemorrhage.

[00:03:06]That's kind of one of its more dramatic manifestations. But for most people, they're going to start with fevers, chills, muscle aches and pains, diarrhea, and what ends up happening is their blood pressure will plummet. Their organs will start to fail. And without supportive care, the mortality can reach, you know, 60 to 90%. And it's spread through blood and body fluids.

[00:03:24]It's not very contagious as long as people are wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment when they're taking care of patients. And one of the things we know is that sometimes when people die from Ebola in Africa, there are certain certain ceremonies that they go through with the body that can actually end up spreading the infection. So safe burial practices will also be really important to quash this out outbreak.

[00:03:45]>> Yeah. And you mentioned just the location in Africa, in Congo, in Uganda.

[00:03:51]Obviously they are concerned potentially reaching large cities, Kenshasa, which is a thousand kilometers from there. How concerned are you just being around people? You mentioned kind of the way it's passed along just being in a large area. Is that concerning?

[00:04:06]>> You're only going to be contagious if you're emanating blood and body fluid.

[00:04:09]So that means if you're vomiting, if there's diarrhea. So this isn't something that often spreads within a general population. And of course, it's concerning. There there is a case in Kinshasa now and a traveler from that that remote province and there are two cases in Kala, which is the capital of Uganda. That's always going to be concerning because there's more opportunities. But again, this is a virus that's very constrained in how it spreads, blood and body fluid. So, you can't get it casually. It doesn't spread through the air. It's something that you have to be in contact. And that can be a challenge if somebody is sick and out in the street, for example, or going from hospital to hospital. But when you put in personal protective equipment, it doesn't spread. So, this is something that the DRC has dealt with at least a dozen times before. The key thing will be getting resources to bear this late in the game because 240 something cases tells you this has been spreading for some time.

[00:04:55]>> Yeah. Yeah, I wanted to get into that because the WHO, the African region also posting this saying nearly 7 tons of emergency medical supplies and equipment along with the team of 35 experts arrived today from Kenshasa to support the frontline Ebola response in that kind of eastern province. What is the WH? What other resources are out there?

[00:05:15]What would be most helpful to those in the region?

[00:05:17]>> Right now, it's probably going to be personnel and supportive care. So that might mean IV fluids, uh the ability to replace electrolytes, diagnostic tests, and then importantly personal protective equipment for the caregiver. So gowns, gloves, masks, setting up a way to take care of these patients safely so it doesn't spread. And then bringing in teams to help with safe burial practices for those who have died from the disease. That that's kind of what it will be. That's how they've stopped Ebola outbreaks in the past. As I said earlier, we don't have the advantage of the vaccines or the monoconal antibodies because of the strain, but there's a lot they can do with just that supportive care and the basic logistics and and equipment that are kind of bread and butter for controlling Ebola outbreaks.

[00:05:56]>> You mentioned the lack of vaccine and kind of treatment for this. Is there a reason behind it? Is it just the fact that it's so rare?

[00:06:04]>> It is a rare strain of Ebola, but the thing is we only have countermeasures against one of the strains of Ebola.

[00:06:10]There are several different strains of Ebola. The most deadly is called the Zire strain. That was what was responsible for the outbreak in West Africa in 2014 that led to some cases in the United States. And for that we have monoconal antibodies for that we have a vaccine. But for the other strains including this strain which is known by the name Bundabugio we don't have any anything uh for it. This is one of the task one of the tasks that remains to really taming Ebola is to get counter measures for all of the strains so that we don't get stuck in these types of situations again.

[00:06:37]>> And what are they doing on the ground there? Is it a matter of just treating people? Is it contact tracing? Because we talk about some of these runaway transmission chains. What are they doing to mitigate the spread? It >> It's all of the above. First of all, it's going to be diagnosing cases and then isolating those cases and making sure that they're treated in Ebola treatment centers where it can be done safely. It's going to be looking at contacts and monitoring contacts for the development of disease so that they can be rapidly isolated and linked to care.

[00:07:03]And then it's going to be educating healthcare workers on how to take care of these patients and safe burial practices because we know that funerals can amplify spread. So that's also a key part of what happens on the ground.

[00:07:14]>> And obviously we talk about this as this is a global health emergency, but they're not closing down international borders as of yet. What would it mean to rise to that level? And and would that be beneficial in your eyes?

[00:07:26]>> In general, no. closing international borders is usually something that ends up isolating the area even more, making it harder to get resources in and concentrating it in a way that usually magnifies the infection. So, I don't want to see international borders closed. Often times though, that's the first thing that politicians will run to to look like they're doing something.

[00:07:44]And I wouldn't be surprised if you hear about that happening, but it's not generally going to be helpful and it's only going to make it logistically more challenging. And we talked about haunt virus and some of those people in isolation quarantining for 42 days, six weeks of time. How long in terms of does that matter for this? How long are we looking at the outlook?

[00:08:03]>> Well, so right now they don't have any kind of control of this outbreak. So we don't know where these chains of transmission are going. So I suspect this is probably going to be a monthsl long process before they can extinguish all the chains because this has been going probably for weeks before it was something that was the WHO was notified about. and and obviously you mentioned the fact that we've seen this before. We are aware of this virus. How beneficial might that be to health officials and what they do in treatment, but also tracking down some of the people that are and have this virus?

[00:08:34]>> Well, there is a playbook that they can use for Ebola outbreaks. As I said earlier, Ebola first started causing outbreaks that we noticed in 1976, and there's been dozens and dozens of Ebola outbreaks, including at least a dozen in the DRC. So there are best practices that can be put into place and we do have Ebola outbreaks from time to time and they're usually able to be contained. But the big factor here is how quickly you can get resources to bear. It's a lot of things have to happen right in order to to get a handle on an Ebola outbreak. And that's what this public health emergency of international concern will help do. It will start to concentrate resources in the area.

[00:09:08]>> Yeah. Over 300 suspected cases, 88 deaths at this moment. What else do you want to note? Anything else we're missing before I let you go?

[00:09:16]>> I I think it's going to just be important to understand the contact transmission pattern when the first case occurred, how these cases where these cases are going geographically. Are they only in that province? We know that there there cases that are in Kinshasa, at least one case in Kinshasa and two in Kala. Are there any other cases in Uganda or outside of that province?

[00:09:32]Those are going to be important. And how quickly can you get resources to the area?

[00:09:37]>> Yeah, so very important for this whole thing as they're kind of talking about this global health emergency. Dr. Adalia, thank you so much for your time here on Live Now.

[00:09:46]>> Thanks for having me.

[00:09:46]>> All right.