The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has spread to a fourth province, according to media reports.
Sources at DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research told Agence France-Press that an Ebola case was detected in Haut-Uele province after a patient traveled there from Ituri province, which is the outbreak’s epicenter. Haut-Uele is north of Ituri and borders South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Like Ituri, the province sees heavy cross-border movement and trade, which health officials fear is helping the virus spread.
North and South Kivu are the other two provinces in DRC that have reported Ebola cases. The outbreak now stands at 1,274 confirmed cases in DRC, with 360 deaths. Neighboring Uganda has 20 confirmed cases and two deaths.
The outbreak was declared on May 15 but is believed to have begun much earlier. Last week, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the rate of contact tracing in DRC is far from where it needs to be to contain the viral hemorrhagic disease, which spreads through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of a person who is sick or has died from Ebola.
The growing outbreak has prompted DRC’s government to ban mass public gatherings in the country’s capital, Kinshasa, according to the BBC. Mass gatherings have already been banned in Ituri, North and South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele, and Tshopo provinces. No cases have been reported yet in Kinshasa, but a French doctor who had been treating Ebola patients spent a day in the city before flying back to France and later tested positive.
ASPR sends doses of investigational monoclonal antibody
In other news, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, last week said it is sending investigational doses of the monoclonal antibody MBP134 to DRC and Uganda for compassionate use.
Developed by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, MBP134 has demonstrated activity against multiple Ebola virus species and will be evaluated in a randomized clinical trial run by Oxford University.
“Data generated during the outbreak response may help inform future regulatory review and potential pathways toward licensure,” ASPR said in a news release.
The virus causing the current outbreak is Bundibugyo, which has no licensed therapeutics or vaccines. The trial, set to begin this week, will test whether MBP134 and the antiviral remdesivir can help reduce mortality in patients with Bundibugyo virus disease, alone or in combination.
Last week, Trump Administration officials said they were planning to request an additional $1.4 billion in funds from Congress to address the outbreak. Reuters reported that $800 million would help fund supplies, treatments, and contact tracing, along with a controversial quarantine center in Kenya for Americans who’ve been exposed to Ebola that has been temporarily stopped by the Kenyan government amid protests. Another $500 million would support efforts to prevent the virus from coming to the United States.
In a statement today, the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America said the money is “critically needed to save lives and contain the outbreak” but questioned how the money might be directed.
“However, providing funds solely to the State Department fails to reflect the reality that responding to an outbreak requires coordination across many agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response,” said Ronald Nahass, MD. “These agencies provide the scientific expertise needed to ensure that investments in the Ebola response have the greatest possible impact.”
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