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“Greater recovery is expected, especially when people are diagnosed early and can access health services, and when the response to the outbreak intensifies,” United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update on Sunday.
In total, five people have recovered from the virus, the agency said, citing the case of a laboratory worker who was declared cured last Thursday.
The announcement is welcome news as the UN-partnered response to the outbreak ramps up Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus, mainly because there is no licensed vaccine or treatment and which the WHO categorizes as “the disease you get when you care for someone”.
On Sunday, there were 210 confirmed cases of infection reported in the country, with 17 confirmed deaths. Nearly 350 suspected cases are under investigation and 16 health workers have contracted Ebola in Congo during the latest outbreak.
Since the declaration of the Ebola outbreak on May 15, key response measures have included laboratory testing, disease surveillance, infection prevention and control, community engagement, and resource mobilization.
In Bunia, the likely epicenter of the outbreak and capital of Ituri province, WHO has handed over a renovated Ebola Treatment Center to health authorities. The facility has 24 beds with a total capacity of 60 beds. WHO is also preparing a pavilion with a capacity of up to 42 beds.
Efforts to contain the outbreak are made more complicated by the dire humanitarian situation in Congo’s resource-rich far eastern region, where decades-long conflict has left 1.2 million people in need of aid in Ituri province alone. Infections are concentrated in Ituri, as well as the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
Treatment is in progress
While there is no vaccine or licensed treatment for the Bundibugyo virus that causes Ebola, a WHO advisory group described several treatment and vaccine candidates as “promising enough” to warrant priority for evaluation in clinical trials.
WHO’s role is to work with health authorities in Congo and Uganda to make this happen.
For confirmed cases, three therapeutic treatment candidates have been prioritized for clinical trials: the monoclonal antibody MBP 134 and maftivimaband antivirus remdesivir.
For prevention, oral antivirals obeldesivir prioritized in clinical studies as a post-exposure measure for those who have been in contact with confirmed cases.
According to WHO, two vaccine candidates have been identified for evaluation once doses become available.
Tedro’s call for solidarity
Meanwhile, the agency emphasized the important role of community involvement in ending transmission of the virus, which has a fatality rate of between 30 percent and 50 percent.
“Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus is survivable with good medical care, and some people in Ituri have recovered. Seeking treatment early will make a real difference…This is not without hope,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking in Bunia at the weekend.
In a renew on Friday, WHO highlighted that the outbreak in Congo and neighboring Uganda was growing rapidly “with increasing number of cases, geographic spread and ongoing cross-border transmission”. An additional confirmed case of a person from the US who had treated patients in Congo is still receiving treatment in Germany.
