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A few days ago the news broke in the media that warned of the decision taken by the WHO to warn of a new Ebola outbreak in the province of Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just when we are still trying to resolve the health emergency triggered by the hantavirus. With this ‘alarm voice’ the WHO gives international relevance to this outbreak, which is not a routine or predictable episode, but is a variant for which there are no approved treatments and, above all, which can be expand easily to the surrounding countries. Expanding. The magnitude of the problem is reflected in its rapid evolution, since in just a few weeks since the initial detection, the health authorities have already recorded more than 246 suspected cases and around 80 deaths that would be related to this virus a priori. And although so far there are only eight laboratory-confirmed cases, the geographical situation complicates tracking. The epicenter is in the east of the DRC, but the pathogen has not respected territorial limits, since the virus has already crossed the border into Ugandawhere two cases have been confirmed in the capital itself, Kampala. This jump to a densely populated urban center is precisely what has precipitated the maximum alert by the United Nations and the WHO. It is not a pandemic. At the moment the criteria are not met to consider this outbreak as a pandemic, but the declaration seeks coordinate international response before mobility between affected countries turns this outbreak into something much larger. And we must not forget that we are facing a virus that generates a serious and potentially fatal disease. In the past. If we look back, this situation is not completely new, since a outbreak in 2014 In West Africa this same alert was raised and the consequence was that it ended up reaching Spain. This virus in our territory caused the repatriation of several citizens, some infections on the ground and also the sacrifice of the famous dog Excalibur On this occasion, the protagonist was the strain Zaire, but the current outbreak is developed by the strain Bundibugyo. The big problem facing the scientific and health community is that, although in recent years we have developed an impressive preventive and therapeutic arsenal for the variant Zairethese tools they don’t work against the Bundibugyo strain. The absence of prophylaxis and specific approved treatments exponentially multiplies the clinical risk and makes control efforts on the ground difficult. The perfect storm. Added to the virological challenge is a first-level logistical and social challenge. We must keep in mind that the east of the DRC is one of the areas more unstable of the planet, characterized by constant armed conflicts, and this is the perfect storm epidemiologically speaking due to many factors such as: Lack of access to medical equipment and rapid response in hot zones safely. The constant movement of refugees means that the virus may be spreading between countries. Distrust of national and international health systems makes it difficult to isolate the sick, trace direct contacts, and implement protocols to manage bodies. It is not endemic Ebola. On many occasions we can hear that Ebola is ‘one more’ in some areas of Africa, referring to the constant circulation of the virus in animal reservoirs such as, for example, bats in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone. In this case, the virus can emerge sporadically and cause outbreaks that are contained and do not generate too many epidemiological problems. And now we are facing something quite different, starting with the strain that resembles what we were used to and also because it is now ‘jumping’ geographical borders and passing between countries. This is also added to the fact that this new outbreak with an international emergency is developing in a country with war, where the disease takes a back seat, which is more dangerous when we are faced with a variant that we are not used to and for which we do not know many treatments. Images | aleksandarlittlewolf in Magnific In Xataka | We believed we were prepared for a post-covid world. Hantavirus is the first serious test and the results are not optimistic