A clinical trial testing potential treatments for the Ebola virus has begun in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced. The first patient has been enrolled in the trial, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who made the announcement on Thursday.
The current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which began in May, has been declared a public health emergency by the WHO. As of June 30, the country had recorded 1,406 confirmed cases and 438 deaths. The outbreak has also spread to Uganda, with 20 confirmed cases and two deaths, and France, with one confirmed case, as of July 1.
No Approved Treatments Available
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the specific species of the Bundibugyo virus causing the current outbreak. The disease is highly infectious and typically spreads from animals, usually fruit bats, to humans when people handle infected animals. Symptoms, which appear suddenly and mimic flu or malaria, include fever, headache, and tiredness, with an incubation period of two to 21 days. Contagiousness generally begins after symptom development.
The WHO is sponsoring the current trial, which is being coordinated by scientists from the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in DR Congo, the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium, and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Hope for Saving Lives
Speaking from WHO headquarters in Geneva, Tedros stated, “Even without approved therapeutics, people are recovering from this disease, but of course, we could save many more lives with safe and effective therapeutics in our toolkit.”
The development of vaccines for Ebola is complex, as each individual species of the virus, of which there are six, requires a specific vaccine. Only three of these species are known to cause outbreaks in humans.
Steve Lopez is the Editorial Page Editor for News Raise. He covers Health. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards for his reporting and column writing at seven newspapers and four news magazines.
