© WHO/J. M. Raymond A health worker undergoes disinfection at an Ebola treatment center in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola outbreak in DRC doubles every 20 days Health
United Nations humanitarian workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to ramp up their response to the Ebola outbreak. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher announced this on Wednesday.
He stressed that it is necessary to act even more coherently and quickly, since the scale of the outbreak is now doubling every 20 days. Authorities in the DRC have reported 4,449 confirmed cases and 2,061 deaths, meaning nearly every second diagnosed patient dies. patients. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this on the social network X on Wednesday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that the development of scientific research in this area is proceeding simultaneously in several directions.
According to the head of WHO, two new animal trials of a vaccine against the more common type of Ebola, the Zaire virus, have been completed in parallel. These trials, he said, showed encouraging results in terms of cross-protection in animals. WHO recommended inclusion of this vaccine in phase three clinical trials, which represents the final stage of testing the drug on a large number of patients.
“We hope to begin this phase as soon as possible,” the WHO head noted. “We don’t know if this vaccine is effective against Bundibugyo in humans, and that’s why we need a new phase of testing.” team”
Meanwhile, work continues on therapeutic approaches to treat Ebola. The WHO-supported PARTNERS clinical trial has reached a milestone with 100 patients enrolled. According to Ghebreyesus, this demonstrates that even in a difficult epidemiological situation, scientific work can be quickly and coherently organized. We work together as a team.”