Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo – As Ebola instances proceed to emerge within the japanese Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Virunga Nationwide Park – Africa’s oldest – is strengthening well being measures to guard communities and the endangered mountain gorillas dwelling in it.
The measures are a part of the park’s emergency response after the World Well being Group (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak within the DRC and neighbouring Uganda a Public Well being Emergency of Worldwide Concern in Could.
“It’s a horrible illness and one which poses a risk at the beginning to human populations. Protected areas corresponding to Virunga Nationwide Park are huge pure areas the place there are not any human populations. They act as obstacles to the unfold of the illness,” Emmanuel de Merode, director-general of Virunga Nationwide Park, informed Al Jazeera.
Virunga beforehand supported efforts to comprise the DRC’s tenth Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020, which killed almost 2,300 individuals in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. De Merode believes the park can once more contribute to slowing transmission through the nation’s seventeenth outbreak, which has killed greater than 1,400 individuals, based on Congolese well being authorities.
Rangers and well being employees be part of the response
The park has established six well being checkpoints inside and round its territory, a 300km (186-mile) stretch of protected forest that park officers describe as a pure barrier throughout North Kivu. It has additionally deployed 40 paramedics alongside 80 rangers as a part of an preliminary six-month emergency response.
De Merode informed Al Jazeera the checkpoints on roads crossing the park permit authorities to watch motion via the protected space.
“We’re establishing checkpoints, which act as roadblocks, along with well being models for handwashing and temperature screening, and a first-level isolation centre subsequent to every checkpoint,” he stated.
In Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, checkpoints north and south of Bunia, the provincial capital, are screening travellers arriving from areas affected by Ebola.
“We’ve supported the well being service with protecting tools, physique luggage, thermometers and automobiles as a result of, when the illness first broke out, the well being companies confronted actual difficulties, significantly in North Kivu,” de Merode stated.
Virunga, a United Nations Instructional, Scientific and Cultural Group (UNESCO) World Heritage Web site since 1980, is situated in a area that has skilled greater than twenty years of armed battle. Greater than 800 rangers shield the park, which is dwelling to a variety of the world’s most threatened species.
A wider function within the Ebola response
De Merode stated expertise from earlier outbreaks has strengthened cooperation between Virunga and Congolese well being authorities, significantly in surveillance and early detection.
Reflecting on the 2018-2020 Ebola response, he stated members of the outbreak response committee thought-about Virunga an essential consider limiting the unfold of the virus.
“The response committee on the time famous that the actual fact the illness by no means extensively unfold to Goma or to different elements of the nation was additionally as a consequence of Virunga Nationwide Park, which was thought-about a significant factor in stopping the illness from spreading southwards or eastwards,” he stated.
De Merode pressured that Virunga stays just one a part of a wider response led by Congolese well being authorities and supported by technical and monetary companions.
“All the data collected at our checkpoints is straight away transmitted to the Congolese Nationwide Institute of Public Well being for follow-up,” he stated.
In Ituri province, three checkpoints managed by the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation inside Virunga are screening travellers arriving from areas most uncovered to Ebola.
Park officers say two suspected instances have been recognized on the checkpoints and referred to public well being authorities for monitoring.
“If, sadly, instances do come up past the checkpoint, we’re capable of hint them and all of the contacts who had been travelling with them, and this allows us to watch any potential instances that could be on the transfer,” de Merode stated.
The risk to the world’s remaining mountain gorillas
Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are amongst Virunga Nationwide Park’s most iconic species. Labeled as endangered by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), their inhabitants is estimated at simply above 1,000 throughout the Higher Virunga Panorama, which spans the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.
The DRC is dwelling to a major share of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, with Virunga defending one of many final populations of those nice apes.
Eddy Syaluha, a veterinarian with Gorilla Docs, a conservation organisation working to guard the well being of nice apes within the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, informed Al Jazeera that the shut organic relationship between people and mountain gorillas makes them weak to ailments carried by individuals.
![Motorbike riders have their temperatures checked by a Virunga National Park health agent at an Ebola screening checkpoint in northern Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo. [Prosper Heri Ngorora/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/1007094932-1785575652.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80)
“Mountain gorillas share greater than 90 % of their DNA with people, which implies they’re prone to most of the identical infectious ailments, together with Ebola and respiratory diseases,” he stated.
Syaluha stated the dangers underline the significance of a One Well being method, which recognises that human, animal and environmental well being are interconnected.
Retaining Ebola away from the forest
Regardless of repeated Ebola outbreaks within the area over the previous 5 a long time, Syaluha stated no mountain gorilla has ever been contaminated with the virus in Virunga Nationwide Park or elsewhere within the DRC.
He stated conservation groups proceed to watch gorilla well being and display guests to scale back the chance of human-to-animal transmission. Earlier Ebola outbreaks have proven the devastating impression the virus can have on nice apes, with some research documenting mortality charges above 90 % amongst western lowland gorilla populations in Central Africa.
Syaluha stated the shut relationship between people and nice apes makes prevention and surveillance important to retaining Ebola away from Virunga’s gorillas.
“We’re doing all the pieces we are able to to make sure that what occurred in different international locations doesn’t occur to our gorillas right here,” he stated.
“We’re focusing totally on preventive measures centred on people to forestall transmission to our gorillas. We commonly monitor the well being of our gorillas to stay on excessive alert.”
