A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading ->
Two months after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola Bundibugyo, the outbreak is “continuing to outpace the response” – and with 2,073 people infected and 796 dead, this is the fastest outbreak ever, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus told a media briefing on Thursday. “Intense […] Continue reading ->
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak is the fastest-growing on record, Africa CDC told its weekly briefing on Wednesday, with confirmed cases up 25% over the past week to 1,759 and deaths reaching 600. The outbreak’s reproductive number is 1.4, meaning every 10 infections lead to roughly 14 more, while the case fatality […] Continue reading ->
A trial to test two antiviral therapies on patients with Ebola Bundibugyo Virus started to enrol patients on Thursday – but its exact location in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Ituri province remains secret for security reasons. This emerged at a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on Thursday, at which Director General Dr Tedros […] Continue reading ->
Treatment tents are burning in Ituri, burial teams are facing hostility, and suspected patients are fleeing quarantine centres, disappearing into communities. These heartbreaking incidents are often described as obstacles to controlling the current Ebola outbreak. For the dedicated frontline workers risking their lives every day to contain the virus, these challenges are deeply frustrating. But […] Continue reading ->
A clinical trial of two antivirals that may be effective in treating Ebola Bundibugyo is expected to start in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) next week. “The trial will evaluate whether MVPC 134 and remdesivir can help to reduce mortality in patients with Bundibugyo virus disease, alone or in combination,” World Health Organization (WHO) […] Continue reading ->
The current Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak is three times larger than any other Ebola outbreak was four weeks after being declared a public health emergency, Africa CDC revealed at a media briefing on Thursday. This Ebola outbreak was declared a public health emergency on 17 May, and there are currently 875 cases and 202 deaths, Africa […] Continue reading ->
Despite claims by the United States that it has allocated over $270 million to the Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak response, countries and groups dealing with the outbreak are in the dark about where the money is going. Washington’s directive to US health experts not to deal with World Health Organization (WHO) officials is also hampering their […] Continue reading ->
Only around 12% of the contacts of Ebola patients in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been reached, posing a “huge risk” for community transmission, Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told a media briefing on Thursday. Ituri is the epicentre of the current […] Continue reading ->
This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. The response to the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must be rooted in the country’s local health structures and avoid “asymmetrical” suffering by treating those in state-controlled and rebel-run areas the same, says a leading Congolese virologist. The current epidemic […] Continue reading ->