Ebola outbreak in Congo tops 10,000 cases and becomes the second largest in history

This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).

The Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus, concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had 10,699 confirmed cases and 5,202 deaths as of last week, according to the Portuguese newspaper Público. With these numbers, the epidemic is already the second largest since the disease was identified.

The fatality rate is close to 50%: practically one in every two infected people has died. The Brazilian newspaper O Globo, which attributes the figures to CDC Africa, the public health body of the African Union, also reports more than 10,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths.

The epicenter is the Congo, but the disease has already crossed borders. Cases have been recorded in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, as well as in European countries, according to Público. The virus’s presence outside Africa increases pressure on health surveillance at ports and airports on other continents.

The main obstacle in fighting the outbreak is the lack of specific protection. There is no approved vaccine against the Bundibugyo variant, and there is also no approved treatment for it, according to Público. This means the available tools have not been validated to contain this virus.

Given this scenario, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended testing candidate vaccines in a clinical trial. According to O Globo, the agency advocated expanding an ongoing study to include projects from three developers: the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the Serum Institute of India, and the pharmaceutical company Moderna.

A clinical trial is the stage in which it is verified whether a vaccine is safe and whether it actually protects against the disease. Until results come out and any immunizer is approved, the response to the outbreak depends above all on control measures, such as identifying the sick and monitoring those who had contact with them.

For Brazil, the outbreak matters for two reasons. The disease has already reached another continent, showing the virus’s capacity to spread through international travel. And the country maintains flights and ties with Africa, which makes surveillance at entry points a concrete public health issue.

The WHO has not yet indicated when the tests of the candidate vaccines should produce results.

Reporting from O Globo (p. 21 (República Democrática do Congo)), Público (p. 29 (República Democrática do Congo)).