The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo highlights the need to strengthen preparedness for rare and unpredictable infectious diseases.
The Bundibugyo virus belongs to the same filovirus family as the Ebola virus, but it is far less common. There have been only two previous outbreaks, in Uganda in 2007 and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012, before the current outbreak surpassed them in both scale and trajectory.
According to the World Health Organization, 695 confirmed cases and 138 confirmed deaths had been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda as of June 11.
Professor Nancy Sullivan of Boston University, in a review article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said that containing the outbreak requires rapidly diagnosing cases, isolating those infected, tracing contacts, implementing infection control measures, and providing supportive care.
She noted that weak laboratory capacity and delays in conducting tests in resource-limited areas may hinder efforts to control the disease, as samples in some cases need to be transported to reference laboratories for testing, which may delay confirmation of infections for days or weeks.
The Bundibugyo virus causes severe hemorrhagic fever that can lead to widespread inflammation throughout the body, damage to blood vessels, severe bleeding, and multiple organ failure. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, making healthcare workers, especially those in hospitals, among the most vulnerable groups.
Sullivan stressed that the similarity of the disease's symptoms to other diseases such as malaria and typhoid makes laboratory diagnosis essential, warning that delays in detecting cases could hinder the isolation of infected individuals, contact tracing, and containment of the outbreak.
She added that the Bundibugyo outbreak reveals gaps in health preparedness plans that often focus on more well-known pathogens, while rare viruses can quickly turn into serious threats.
She called for the development of diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments capable of dealing with a wide range of pathogens, along with strengthening international cooperation and operational readiness to confront any new outbreak.
Despite progress in developing vaccines and treatments against Ebola, Sudan, and Marburg viruses, there are still no licensed vaccines or treatments that directly target the Bundibugyo virus, although some studies suggest the possibility of partial protection from vaccines developed against closely related viruses.
