How Virunga Park protects people and gorillas from Ebola in eastern DRC

Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest protected area, is strengthening disease containment measures across its territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as Ebola cases continue to emerge in the region. The enhanced protocols follow the World Health Organization's May declaration of the outbreak in the DRC and neighbouring Uganda as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

The park has established six health checkpoints positioned within and around its 300-kilometre stretch of protected forest across North Kivu province. These checkpoints function as roadblocks equipped with handwashing facilities, temperature screening stations, and isolation centres. The park has also deployed 40 paramedics alongside 80 rangers as part of an initial six-month emergency response plan. Park officials describe the protected area as a natural barrier to disease transmission across the region.

According to Emmanuel de Merode, director-general of Virunga, the checkpoints enable authorities to monitor movement through the protected area and support early detection efforts. In Ituri province, where the outbreak is most concentrated, checkpoints north and south of Bunia screen travellers from affected areas. The park has also provided health services with protective equipment, body bags, thermometers, and vehicles to address resource shortages.

Virunga's current response builds on experience from the DRC's 10th Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020, which killed nearly 2,300 people in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. The current 17th outbreak has claimed more than 1,400 lives according to Congolese health authorities. De Merode indicated that previous outbreak experience has strengthened cooperation between Virunga and Congolese health authorities in surveillance and early detection.