The Ebola outbreak centred in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached a grim milestone. Congo’s public health institute reported 9,066 confirmed cases and 4,381 deaths in its latest situation report, making the Bundibugyo outbreak the largest and deadliest in the country’s history.
The strain has no approved vaccine or treatment. The World Health Organization’s Chikwe Ihekweazu said a vaccine efficacy trial is being prepared for the coming weeks, and Gavi says candidate vaccines already in trials offer hope of a tool that does not yet exist for this species of the virus.
Kenya confirmed an eighth case on Monday. Kenya’s first imported case had travelled from Congo via Uganda and died in Nairobi, underscoring how quickly a regional outbreak tests the surveillance systems of neighbouring states.
For responders, the arithmetic is stark: cases are still rising in the outbreak’s core while the countermeasures that ended previous Ebola emergencies — vaccination and proven therapeutics — are, for this strain, still experimental.
