Overview
- The World Health Organization says the outbreak is spreading faster than responders can manage and has urged a major increase in financial and operational support.
- Health authorities report about 3,802 confirmed cases, 1,707 deaths and roughly 17,000 contacts under follow-up, with more than 80% tracked daily.
- The epidemic is the largest recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has moved into five eastern provinces, with roughly 87% of cases concentrated in Ituri.
- There are currently no licensed vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain, and multiple candidates have been fast-tracked into early testing, including an Oxford vaccine dose in a volunteer, an rVSV Bundibugyo program led by Hilleman Laboratories, and a Moderna vaccine entering phase 1 trials in Canada.
- Teams have begun rapid evaluations of therapeutics such as remdesivir, obeldesivir and the monoclonal antibody MBP134, but weak local health systems, limited staffing and the need for intensive contact tracing and safe burials threaten containment and heighten the risk of further spread.