WHO has greenlighted Phase 2/3 trials for two brand new vaccine candidates that specifically target the Ebola Bundibugyo virus species ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo. Actual trials could forseeably commence “within three to four weeks” – as soon as DRC regulators issue their own approval, said WHO’s Science Director Meg Doherty, at a Wednesday […] Continue reading ->
Nigeria’s first Ebola Bundibugyo patient may have crossed paths with Kenya’s recently deceased index patient at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport on 3 October, according to Dr Wessam Mankoula, head of health emergencies at Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mankoula told a media briefing on Thursday that this was one of the possibilities being […] Continue reading ->
Nigeria’s lone Ebola patient was only diagnosed almost two weeks after showing symptoms – and is reported to have travelled to the capital, Abuja, from Uganda. She entered Nigeria on October 3rd, started showing symptoms on October 7th and was admitted to hospital two days later – but was only diagnosed on Tuesday (20 October), […] Continue reading ->
The Kenyan man who died of Ebola this week travelled extensively through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda and sought medical care from mid-September – passing through several airport health screenings without detection, even two days before he died. Dr Wessam Mankoula, head of health emergencies for Africa Centre for Disease Control and […] Continue reading ->
The security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be behind the significant decline in Ebola cases over the past week, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Thursday. Africa CDC emergencies head Dr Wessam Mankoula cautioned against reading too much into the plunge in cases over the past week, […] Continue reading ->
G20+ countries pledged an additional $700 million this week to counter the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told a media briefing on Thursday. The new pledges were made at the G20+ Foreign Ministers’ meeting convened by the United States […] Continue reading ->
The world has ridden fast to rescue DRC from Ebola. But four months on, nobody can say for sure how many agencies are responding, how many people they employ, how much money has arrived, or what it bought. There are, however, coordinators galore. But the virus is still outwitting them. Time and again, we learn […] Continue reading ->
As the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) confronts its 17th and fastest-growing Ebola outbreak, a troubling warning is emerging from community networks in Ituri province. These networks, which support people living with HIV, are reporting an unexpected number of deaths among people living with HIV. The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) […] Continue reading ->
The Ebola Bundibugyo virus outbreak is showing early signs of containment in the Ituri province in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it first surfaced in April. But in North Kivu province, to the south, cases are still rising fast, with weekly cases nearly doubling over the past two weeks, […] Continue reading ->
The lethality of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not just in its genome. Neither is it entirely explained by the country’s internal instability and defunded, broken health infrastructure. Have we allowed the virus to outsmart us by overlooking past lessons? The signs around the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak indicate […] Continue reading ->