Switzerland prepared for an emergency Ebola outbreak in parts of Africa - the 7 most important questions and answers

A special Ebola variant is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The most important questions and answers on the current situation.

On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international health emergency due to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. blue News answers the most important questions and answers.

Last week, the first cases of Ebola were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently, the province of Ituri in north-eastern Congo is particularly affected. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported several hundred suspected cases, including many fatalities. Cases have also been reported in Uganda.

The WHO declared an international health alert on Sunday. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "very concerned" about the spread of the virus.

Simply explained: Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal infectious disease caused by the Ebola virus. A total of five different types of virus are known, including the Zaire strain, the Sudan Ebola virus and the Bundibugyo virus.

Ebola viruses belong to the so-called zoonotic pathogens. This means that an outbreak usually begins with transmission from animals to humans. Subsequently, the disease usually spreads from person to person, which requires direct contact with bodily fluids or close physical contact.

The incubation period, i.e. the time between infection and the first symptoms, is 2 to 21 days, on average 6 to 10 days. The first signs of illness are non-specific and resemble flu: fever, malaise, tiredness and aching limbs. As the disease progresses, symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, skin rashes, shortness of breath or confusion may occur.

The first known Ebola outbreak was recorded in 1976 in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus is named after a river in the affected region.

In the current case, it is the rare Bundibugyo variant (BDBV), for which there is neither a vaccine nor a treatment. That is why it is so dangerous. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the German government's leading biomedical research institution, there is a vaccine candidate, but it has not yet been approved.

It is not known where the viruses come from. However, it is assumed that they enter humans through the consumption of bats or through contact with their excretions. So far, however, BDBV has not been detected in bat or flying fox populations in the affected regions.

The Bundibugyo variant, along with the Zaire and Sudan variants, is one of the three Ebola virus types that are pathogenic to humans and have caused major outbreaks. The name is derived from the Bundibugyo region in Uganda, where this virus variant was first registered in 2007.

Genetically, it is most similar to the Zaire virus, but the genetic sequence differs by around 30 percent. This is why the drugs and vaccines that are now available against the Zaire form of Ebola are not effective against the Bundibugyo variant.

According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Bundibugyo variant has a lower mortality rate of around 37 percent than the Zaire variant, for example.

More than 11,000 people died in an outbreak of the Zaire strain in West Africa in 2014 and 2015. In the last Ebola outbreak in Congo-Kinshasa, 45 people died in the south-western province of Kasaï between September and December 2025.

People who contract the Bundibugyo variant of the Ebola virus initially develop symptoms similar to those of flu or malaria. This can delay diagnosis.

According to the Congolese Minister of Health, the discovery of the Ebola outbreak was also delayed by the fact that the affected communities initially believed in a "mystical disease" or "witchcraft" and therefore did not turn to health facilities and the authorities.

According to the WHO, at least 500 suspected cases and 130 suspected deaths have been recorded since the start of the latest outbreak. This was stated by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In the province of Ituri, 30 infections have also been confirmed. There is also one confirmed case and one death in Uganda's capital Kampala.

Since the official outbreak, around 11.5 tons of medical supplies have been delivered to the affected region from Kinshasa and emergency centers in Dakar and Nairobi within 72 hours. More than 35 experts and first responders from the WHO and the Ministry of Health are already in action, with more teams to follow. The aim is to rapidly expand disease surveillance, clinical care, infection prevention and education of the population.

The aid is being supported by the UN mission Monusco, which is organizing air transports and facilitating access to remote areas. Ethiopian Airlines is also helping with adapted flight schedules for the rapid delivery of relief supplies such as protective clothing, medical kits, tents and water and hygiene products.

Germany has also taken in a US doctor infected with Ebola who had contracted the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was brought from Uganda to Berlin on a special plane and is now being treated at the Charité hospital. In addition, six contact persons with a high risk of infection were brought to Germany.

Unlike Germany, Switzerland has not yet received any requests for the admission of Ebola patients. This was announced by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) on Wednesday at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency.

However, Switzerland would be prepared for an emergency: the University Hospitals of Geneva and Zurich would be responsible for Ebola patients. They have been the national reference hospitals for Ebola and similar highly contagious diseases since 2019. According to the FOPH, they have the necessary infrastructure and trained medical staff to be able to admit patients in an emergency.

Possible requests are always evaluated together with the reference hospitals, it added. The reason for this is the very high demand for medical and non-medical staff to treat such cases.

The living conditions in the affected regions are making it considerably more difficult to contain the Ebola outbreak. Many people live in poverty and in close contact with possible animal carriers, often without access to clean drinking water, Charité virologist Gertler toldDeutschlandfunkradio on Monday.

At the same time, the political situation is characterized by violence: Marauding gangs and rebel groups were unsettling the population and hindering the deployment of aid workers, some of whom were themselves under threat. In many places, there is no reliable healthcare, and medical treatment often has to be paid for out of pocket.

The aid organization "Doctors Without Borders" has been on the ground with emergency teams since the beginning of the outbreak. They have been able to draw on medical staff who had already been working in the region, Christian Katzer, Managing Director of the German section, told the "Tagesspiegel" newspaper.

This institute originally provided basic care and treated diseases such as measles and cholera. To combat the current Ebola outbreak, additional specialist teams have been sent to recruit more staff locally.

There is currently no causal treatment for the Bundibugyo virus. Treatment is therefore limited to symptom-relieving measures such as painkillers and antipyretics. In addition, Médecins Sans Frontières has found that therapies to stabilize the fluid balance - such as infusions - can have a positive effect on the course of the disease, says Katzer.

According to experts, it is very unlikely that the Ebola virus will spread worldwide. The pathogen is mainly transmitted through close physical contact and, according to current knowledge, is only passed on when infected people are already showing symptoms. At this stage, infected people are usually barely able to travel.

Accordingly, the European disease control authority ECDC currently sees no cause for major concern. The risk of Europeans becoming infected in Congo is classified as low. The authority rates the probability of infection within Europe as even lower.

Irrespective of the current situation in Central Africa, however, experts are warning of fundamental deficits in global pandemic protection. In its latest report, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board set up by the WHO and World Bank states: "The health emergencies of the past decade - from Ebola to Mpox - show that the world has not become significantly safer from their impact: economic and social costs are rising, access to medical countermeasures is deteriorating, funding is declining, and societies are becoming poorer, more unequal and more divided."