KINSHASA, August 13. /Dunyo IA/.  A rapidly spreading outbreak of Ebola virus disease is continuing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the scale of the outbreak currently doubling approximately every 20 days, reports Dunyo IA correspondent, citing with “UN News”.

It should be noted that authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have reported 4,449 confirmed cases of the disease and 2,061 deaths. This means that nearly one in every two diagnosed patients dies. The current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus.

According to the WHO, the spread of the infection began as early as February, although some cases may initially have been misdiagnosed as malaria or typhoid fever.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that, if the current rate of spread continues, the outbreak could surpass the 2014–2016 epidemic in West Africa in scale, which claimed more than 11,000 lives. At the same time, the WHO expects to bring transmission of the virus under control within three months.

Situation is further complicated by instability in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to WHO Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Janabi, health workers currently have access to only around 30 percent of cases.

“We are chasing the virus, but the virus is ahead of us”, Janabi said, stressing the need to accelerate efforts to identify and isolate patients.

Two vaccines against the Bundibugyo virus have entered human trials for the first time. One of them was developed by a team at the University of Oxford based on the technology used to develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Three other groups are developing additional vaccines that have not yet reached the clinical trial stage.

Meanwhile, two animal trials of a vaccine against the more widespread Ebola virus, Zaire, have been completed. According to the WHO Director-General, the results showed promising cross-protection in animals. The WHO has recommended moving to Phase 3 clinical trials.

“We do not know whether this vaccine is effective against Bundibugyo in humans, and that is why we need a new phase of trials, Ghebreyesus noted. - Neither WHO, governments, nor Africa CDC are doing this work alone. We are working together as one team”.

Photo by “AFP”