The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) is poised to become the deadliest in history. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the spread of the current outbreak could surpass that of 2014–2016, which claimed approximately 11,000 lives. The BBC reported this news online. Although the outbreak was officially declared on May 15 of this year, health officials noted that it had actually begun spreading as early as February.
The virus spread rapidly because initial cases were misdiagnosed as common malaria or typhoid, leading to incorrect treatment. To date, more than 4,300 people have been infected, and 2,000 deaths have been recorded. The infection is currently caused by the rare ‘Bundibugyo’ strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or recognized medicines on the market. Due to ongoing political instability and conflict in eastern Congo, health workers are able to reach only 30 percent of the infected population.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, has expressed concern that the situation is spiraling out of control. However, there is a glimmer of hope: the country’s drug regulatory agency has approved the first human trial of a vaccine for this rare Ebola strain, developed by the University of Oxford in the UK. Additionally, the WHO has launched clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of two existing antiviral drugs in Congo.
