Ebola response expands as Congo cases pass 2,000 and deaths reach 700

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drove several health actions during the week. The University of Oxford began the first human trial of its ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain. The Democratic Republic of the Congo said it would test a Gilead Sciences antiviral for the same strain. Both steps were aimed at the strain identified in the outbreak.

The World Health Organization reported that 80 percent of Ebola cases in eastern Congo were from unknown chains of transmission. The death toll from Ebola reached 700 in that same report. A later count said total cases in the country exceeded 2,000. Unknown transmission chains mean many infections were not yet linked to a known patient.

Travel limits followed the case counts. The United States said it would block citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from traveling to the country on commercial flights. Canada barred foreign nationals who had visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo within the previous 21 days. The two measures were separate national decisions tied to the epidemic.

Uganda's health ministry reported that the country had discharged its last patient diagnosed with Ebola. That discharge started a 42-day countdown toward a declaration that Uganda was free of the virus. The countdown is a standard observation period after the last patient leaves care. It applied to Uganda, not to the larger outbreak in Congo.

The reports do not give a single combined figure for cases outside Congo. They do not say how many people had entered the Oxford trial beyond the start of the first human trial. They do not state that any vaccine or antiviral had been shown to stop the outbreak. The confirmed points are the trial start, the planned antiviral test, the case and death figures, and the travel rules.

A measles outbreak in Bangladesh was also reported in the same days, with the death toll put at 766 after seven more children died in 24 hours, and later at 780. That outbreak is a different disease in a different country. It shows that more than one infectious-disease emergency was being counted during the week. The Ebola figures above remain specific to the Congo epidemic and the related travel steps.