WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo is on pace to surpass the 2014-2016 West African outbreak that killed over 11,000 people. The current outbreak, driven by the rare Bundibugyo virus, has killed more than 2,000 people out of over 4,300 cases since being declared on May 15, though sequencing shows it actually began in February.
Unlike recent Ebola outbreaks, this strain has no approved vaccines or treatments, and the response is hampered by conflict, poor infrastructure, striking health workers, and misinformation in eastern Congo near the borders with South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. WHO's Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud said the outbreak's peak is expected in six months under a moderate scenario, but could last nine to twelve months in a worse one.
Clinical trials of two potential treatments began last month in Ituri province, and two vaccines developed specifically for this virus are now in human trials for the first time. A Nature Medicine study published this week found the outbreak likely began with a single animal-to-human transmission, genetically distinct from prior Bundibugyo outbreaks in 2007 and 2012.
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