The Trump administration is asking Congress for $1.4 billion to respond to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Politico reported June 25.
Here are seven Ebola updates to know.
1. The additional funds would go toward building a U.S.-based Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya, which is under construction despite being blocked by the Kenyan high court. Kenyan Health Minister Aden Duale has since ordered construction to halt, but the U.S. State Department did not say whether construction had stopped, Politico reported. The $1.4 billion request is part of a nearly $88 billion supplemental request to cover Iran war costs, Ebola and other areas.
2. African health officials say the money needed to fight the outbreak has tripled, going from an estimated $518 million to nearly $1.4 billion, Forbes reported June 25. The estimate was based on discussions with experts from Congo’s government and United Nations agencies. Unlike previous estimates, the new figure includes money for humanitarian relief measures.
“If we don’t have this $1.4 billion, and if we don’t resolve the humanitarian issue, we will not stop this outbreak,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, said in a media briefing.
3. As of June 23, there were 1,118 confirmed Ebola cases and 291 confirmed deaths, making this the second largest Ebola outbreak on record. The current Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak is three times larger than any previous Ebola outbreak four weeks after being declared a public health emergency. The largest Ebola outbreak in history, which affected West Africa in 2014 and infected an estimated 28,600 people, had 242 cases registered at four weeks. The current outbreak currently has more than 1,000 cases and has caused more than 250 deaths.
4. Contact tracing is still far behind where it needs to be. Health workers need to track and trace 80% of confirmed Ebola patient’s contacts to end the outbreak. Earlier this week, contact tracing was at 55%, but health officials are now reporting the current figure stands at 30%, The New York Times reported.
“If we don’t stop this outbreak now, for sure it will be the largest Ebola outbreak ever,” Dr. Kaseya said
5. UNICEF warned that about 3 million African children and adolescents are at risk from the disease and losing essential social services.
6. There are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, but the World Health Organization has launched two clinical trials for potential therapies. The trial will test two antivirals, MBP134 and remdesivir, alone and in combination to see if they reduce mortality in Ebola patients. The U.S. and Gilead Sciences are donating all doses for the trial. Remdesivir is Gilead Science’s antiviral; it originally was developed for hepatitis C but was used in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. MBP134 is a monoclonal antibody cocktail developed as a pan-Ebola therapeutic by Mapp Biopharmaceutical.
7. Congo has imposed a 21-day quarantine for anyone traveling from Ebola-affected areas. The change comes after a French humanitarian aid worker tested positive for Ebola and became France’s first ever case of Ebola. Under the rules, anyone who has been a contact of a confirmed or suspected Ebola case must undergo 21 days of active health monitoring, during which they are banned from all travel. The rule also applies to health workers and response teams returning from affected areas.
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