SerpApi.Org
More than 1,000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Africa's top health body said.
Speaking at a health summit in Ghana on Wednesday, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said 1,031 deaths have been confirmed.
“These are people dying. They are dying because we don’t have vaccines, we don’t have medicine, we don’t have funding,” he added.
According to the latest update from the DRC's Ministry of Health, 2,473 Ebola cases had been recorded as of Monday, with at least 737 patients in isolation or receiving hospital treatment.
The outbreak, declared on 15 May, has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history. Unlike most previous outbreaks, it is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
Last week, the University of Oxford's Vaccine Group launched the world's first human clinical trial of a vaccine against the Bundibugyo virus, which has caused the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.
The outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any previous Ebola outbreak, including the 2013–2016 epidemic, the deadliest on record, which claimed more than 11,000 lives from at least 28,000 cases.
The Phase I clinical trial will take place in Oxford and will assess the safety and immune response of the vaccine in 50 healthy adults aged between 18 and 55.
Ebola is a rare but highly contagious disease that spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids, including blood, vomit and semen. It can cause severe illness and is often fatal.
Health officials have warned that around 80% of new cases are emerging outside known chains of transmission, indicating the outbreak is spreading faster than it can be tracked.
Authorities are stepping up their response in Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, and four other provinces where cases have been recorded.
Experts warn of a worsening crisis
Experts have warned the crisis could worsen. Last month, researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used computer modelling to estimate how the outbreak could evolve, warning that in a worst-case scenario it could approach the scale of the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic.
“There’s never been an Ebola outbreak that started with so many cases because it was so late to be identified,” said Trish Newport, emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders, who has been working in Congo.
“It’s like the outbreak is outrunning the response,” Newport said.
Dr. Jean Nachega, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh advising African health authorities, said he does not expect the outbreak to reach the CDC's worst-case scenario but warned that the challenges remain "huge."
