The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has recorded its first confirmed case of Ebola in over a week, the health ministry, although medics say they have made significant progress in their efforts to contain the disease.

According to the ministry, the patient, a known contact of someone who is believed to have died from Ebola on May 20, was confirmed positive on Wednesday for the hemmorhagic fever in the rural community of Iboko.

Health officials have moved aggressively to contain the epidemic in a bid to head off a repeat of the 2013 to 2016 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,300 people.

Over 1,800 health workers and other people who could have been exposed to the virus have received an experimental vaccine first tested in the waning days of the West Africa epidemic.

Those efforts and the slowing pace of new cases have led health officials to express cautious optimism about containing the outbreak, although its location directly upstream the Congo River of the capital Kinshasa remains a concern.

The last confirmed case before Wednesday was on May 30 in Iboko.

The ministry also reported five new suspected cases on Thursday, including two in Mbandaka, a city of some 1.5 million people.

In all, the ministry has recorded 38 confirmed, 14 probable and 10 suspected cases, including 27 deaths.

The WHO said on Thursday that it was committing 15.6 million dollars over the next nine months to helping the nine countries that border Congo to scale up their emergency response capabilities.

On Monday, the government of the northern Angolan province Malanje closed its river border with Congo in response to the outbreak.

NAN reports that the DRC approved the use of five investigational therapeutics to treat Ebola virus disease (EVD).

This, mark the first time such treatments have been available in the midst of an Ebola outbreak in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

Four of the five approved drugs are currently in the country, which are Zmapp, GS-5734, REGN monoclonal antibody combination, and mAb114, under the framework of compassionate use and expanded access, the WHO said.

Clinicians working in the treatment centers will make decisions on which drug to use as deemed helpful for their patients, and appropriate for the setting.

The treatments can be used as long as informed consent is obtained from patients and protocols are followed, with close monitoring and reporting of any adverse events.

Earlier in May, WHO convened a group of independent scientific experts to evaluate investigational therapeutics for EVD during the current outbreak in the DRC.

They found that there are many pathogens for which no proven effective intervention exists.

For some pathogens there may be interventions that have shown promising safety and efficacy in the laboratory and in relevant animal models, but that have not yet been evaluated for safety and efficacy in humans.

Under normal circumstances, such interventions undergo testing in clinical trials that are capable of generating reliable evidence about safety and efficacy.

However, in the context of an outbreak characterized by high mortality, it can be ethically appropriate to offer individual patients investigational interventions on an emergency basis outside clinical trials, WHO said.

Meanwhile, the DRC, the WHO and partners have also developed a comprehensive strategic response plan for points of entry to avoid the spread of the disease to other provinces or at the international level.

The plan includes mapping strategic points of entry and the locations of areas where travelers congregate and interact with the local population, and therefore are at risk of Ebola virus disease transmission based on population movement.

The plan involves implementing health measures at the identified points of entry or traveler congregation points, such as risk communication and community engagement, temperature checks, provision of hand hygiene and sanitation materials, and the development of alert, investigation and referral procedures.

The WHO, however, has noted that the Ebola outbreak does not currently meet the conditions for a public health emergency of international concern, and that there should be no international travel or trade restrictions. (Reuters/NAN)

– Jun 8, 2018 @ 10:53 GMT |