Overview
- The World Health Organization reported Wednesday that confirmed Bundibugyo Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda total in the low hundreds with dozens of deaths while the count of suspected cases fell sharply after data were processed.
- WHO officials said only about 45% of known contacts are being monitored and that armed conflict, attacks on health teams, displaced populations, and slow test turnaround are limiting the response and risking undetected spread.
- Countries have stepped up vigilance ahead of large movements for the FIFA World Cup with Mexico centralizing diagnostics and isolation in INDRE and INR/Ceniaq and states like Jalisco increasing airport screening.
- Brazil ruled out two suspected importations after negative tests, Mexico says it has no confirmed cases, and local authorities in Spain and Mexico have raised event and entry checks while Kenya saw deadly protests and a court temporarily suspended a plan for a foreign quarantine facility.
- There is no approved vaccine or specific antiviral for the Bundibugyo strain, and several vaccine candidates and an oral antiviral called obeldesivir are being fast-tracked toward clinical trials even as insecurity and supply problems complicate testing and delivery.