The World Health Organisation has confirmed an outbreak of a highly-infectious and deadly disease, known as Sudan virus, after the death of a 32-year-old nurse. The WHO has reported two main clusters of infections among the nurse’s family and at the hospital where they worked.
So far, there have been nine confirmed cases of the virus, which has no known vaccine and no known cure.Outbreaks of the virus are relatively rare. This new outbreak is the ninth recorded since 1976 when the virus was first identified and – as was practice at the time – named after the location where this first outbreak took place, southern Sudan.
A 2022 Sudan virus outbreak also in Uganda resulted in 164 cases and 77 deaths (a fatality rate of 47%).
Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton, told The Conversation : “Sudan virus disease is essentially a disease very similar to Ebola. The Ebola virus has caused several high-profile outbreaks. The west Africa 2014-16 outbreak was the largest with 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths.
“The Sudan and Ebola viruses both come from the orthoebolavirus family, but they have different proteins and genetic components, so the immune response to each virus is different. As such, it’s thought that the Ebola vaccines will not be effective against the Sudan virus. For the current Sudan virus outbreak, there are efforts to deploy vaccine candidates and also monoclonal antibody medicines. These medicines create antibodies that aim to stop the virus from replicating.”
All the cases of the latest outbreak have so far been in Uganda, but there are fears of a future spread.
Michael said: “Climate change will have an effect on the geographical distribution of new and emerging infections, such as Ebola and Sudan virus disease and the Crimean-Congo virus. Mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever, will find new habitats while dengue and West Nile virus are already becoming more common in Europe and North America.
“International cooperation for addressing global health threats is vital. However, these efforts will be hindered by the volatility and lack of coherence from key stakeholders such as the US government. The world faces uncertain times, and these are ideal circumstances for the Sudan virus and other infectious diseases to thrive.”