Overview
- The World Health Organization said Thursday the outbreak has expanded faster than any earlier Ebola epidemic, reporting roughly 2,273 confirmed cases and 796 deaths and warning the true toll could be two to four times higher.
- More than 80% of new infections are being found outside known contact lists, and about two-thirds of deaths have occurred in communities where people never received care, which shows many chains of transmission are still missed.
- Violence and local resistance have disrupted the response, with treatment centres attacked, patients and responders fleeing Nyakunde Hospital, and unpaid health workers staging strikes that have closed or blocked facilities.
- Clinical trials and safety studies have started for potential countermeasures — including the MBP134 antibody, remdesivir and an Oxford-backed ChAdOx1 vaccine trial — but researchers say months and large enrollments will be needed to show effectiveness.
- U.S. public-health measures now bar Americans who were in the DRC within 21 days from boarding U.S.-bound commercial flights, seven U.S. aid workers are quarantining at a U.S. isolation unit in Kenya, and aid groups warn the rules could hamper recruitment and shift burdens to third countries.