Experimental Ebola Treatments Begin in DRC Outbreak

Residents at the epicentre of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Ebola outbreak are pinning their hopes on experimental treatments after researchers began a highly anticipated study in early July of two possible Ebola treatments in hopes of fighting the still-growing outbreak.

At the Ebola treatment centre inside Bunia’s Evangelical Medical Centre, in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the launch of the research was marked by urgency rather than ceremony on Thursday.

As ambulances continued arriving and healthcare workers disappeared behind layers of protective equipment into isolation wards, the research effort unfolded quietly alongside the daily struggle to keep patients alive.

The virus causing this outbreak, called Bundibugyo, is less common than others that cause Ebola disease and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it.

Already more than 1,400 people have been diagnosed and 438 have died, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday.

The WHO-supported trial is a collaboration between the DRC’s national biomedical research institute INRB, Britain’s Oxford University, Belgium’s Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, and other international health groups.