Overview
- Officials said Friday that national confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo rose to about 2,905 with 1,269 confirmed deaths after reconciling reports from Ituri and North Kivu provinces.
- Health authorities in the DRC and Uganda reported the combined death toll in the two countries passed 1,000 as Uganda recorded 20 confirmed cases and two deaths.
- The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has about a 40% case fatality rate and no licensed vaccine available.
- WHO-backed randomized treatment trials of the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral remdesivir began in early July, but the studies need many more patients to determine if they work.
- Response efforts have expanded beds, labs and diagnostics, but violence against health teams, unpaid frontline worker strikes, incomplete contact tracing and a major funding shortfall are disrupting care and surveillance and could worsen regional spread.