Global Pulse

分类： health

  • Trump signs order to limit childhood vaccines and limit MMR shots

    Trump signs order to limit childhood vaccines and limit MMR shots

    In a controversial move announced from the Oval Office on Monday, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order that mandates a rollback of recommended childhood vaccines and calls for splitting the combined mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into separate single-disease doses.

    During his remarks, Trump repeated a long-debunked claim that the modern expanded childhood vaccine schedule has driven declining public health and rising autism rates in the United States. “Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today,” Trump argued. “In those times, people were much healthier and of course the high rates of autism now observed did not exist.”

    The Trump administration has a well-documented history of promoting the discredited conspiracy theory that the MMR vaccine is connected to autism diagnoses. Decades of peer-reviewed, large-scale scientific studies conducted by global public health institutions have consistently found no causal relationship between any childhood vaccine and autism.

    Under the terms of the new order, the administration would set a new “gold standard” recommendation of only 11 core vaccines for the most high-risk infectious diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella (chicken pox). Beyond cutting the total number of recommended vaccines, the order also proposes spreading remaining doses across multiple separate doctor visits, rather than combining doses during routine check-ups.

    Critics have quickly pointed out a major legal barrier to the policy’s implementation: the U.S. federal government lacks the authority to set vaccine requirements for school attendance, a power that is exclusively reserved for individual U.S. states. Long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been closely aligned with Trump on this issue, has been a prominent advocate for rolling back childhood vaccine recommendations in recent years. Public health experts warn that reduced vaccination rates and splits to combined vaccines like the MMR would increase the risk of deadly preventable disease outbreaks across the country.

  • We are chasing Ebola virus – it is ahead of us, WHO warns

    We are chasing Ebola virus – it is ahead of us, WHO warns

    The World Health Organization has issued a stark warning that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began circulating at least three months before it was formally announced by public health officials, leaving response teams struggling to contain a pathogen that has already outpaced containment efforts.

    As of the latest official update from DRC’s Ministry of Health, the outbreak has recorded 4,294 confirmed infections and 1,960 fatalities, making it the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history. Only the 2014–2016 West African outbreak, which claimed more than 11,000 lives, has had a higher death toll.

    This outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a variant for which no universally approved vaccine or proven therapeutic treatments currently exist, creating additional barriers for clinical care. Persistent insecurity in the eastern region, the epicenter of the outbreak, has further undermined response work: WHO Africa director Dr Mohamed Janabi told reporters during a press briefing in Bunia, the outbreak’s core hub, that persistent conflict and instability have left response teams only able to reach roughly 30 percent of confirmed cases. The remaining patients are unable to access care and die in their homes.

    New genomic and epidemiological research traces the first community transmission of the virus back to February 2025, months before the outbreak was officially declared on May 15. In those early months, infections were consistently misdiagnosed as more common febrile illnesses including malaria and typhoid, allowing the virus to spread undetected through local communities. Two additional cultural and trust barriers have complicated containment efforts: traditional burial customs that require close physical contact with deceased bodies, a major transmission route for Ebola, and widespread community suspicion of external health authorities have both slowed intervention work.

    Ebola spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, meaning frontline health workers require full personal protective equipment to safely treat patients and conduct containment work. Despite the significant challenges, response officials have noted modest progress: several purpose-built Ebola treatment centers have now been established in eastern DRC, and diagnostic testing capacity has expanded sharply, cutting wait times for confirmatory results.

    Dr Janabi summed up the current state of the response in blunt terms: “We are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us.”

  • Taylor Farms recalls jalapeno products after salmonella outbreak

    Taylor Farms recalls jalapeno products after salmonella outbreak

    One of the United States’ largest fresh produce suppliers, Taylor Farms — a company that confirms it accounted for 40% of all salad kits sold across the U.S. in 2025 — has launched a second major product recall in weeks, this time pulling dozens of jalapeño-containing items from store shelves over confirmed salmonella contamination risks.

    The recall covers roughly 20 fresh products, ranging from pre-made sandwiches, dips, and salsa to pre-sliced jalapeños and prepared burritos, distributed to major national retail chains including Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods across 26 U.S. states. Company representatives emphasized that as of the announcement, no illnesses connected to the potentially contaminated jalapeño products have been reported, but the proactive withdrawal was launched after supplier Coast Citrus Distributors issued its own recall of the peppers over salmonella concerns.

    Investigators have traced the contaminated jalapeños back to a single grower based in Sinaloa, Mexico. In a public statement, Taylor Farms confirmed it has immediately cut ties with the farm and shifted all jalapeño sourcing to alternative approved suppliers. The company has issued clear guidance for consumers: anyone holding recalled products should discard the items immediately, and full refunds are available at the original point of purchase.

    According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), salmonella infection typically develops between 12 and 72 hours after consuming contaminated food, with common symptoms including diarrhea, abdominal cramping, and fever. Most cases resolve on their own, but vulnerable groups including young children, elderly people, and immunocompromised individuals can develop severe complications that require hospitalization.

    This recall marks the second high-profile food safety scare for Taylor Farms in less than a month. The company is already at the center of a large-scale cyclospora outbreak linked to its Mexican-grown iceberg lettuce, which has emerged as one of the most widespread foodborne illness events in recent U.S. history. As of an August 4 update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 22,000 people have fallen ill from cyclosporiasis linked to the outbreak across 45 U.S. states, and Michigan health officials confirmed the first two fatalities linked to the parasite outbreak last week.

    Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that causes severe gastrointestinal illness, most commonly explosive diarrhea and prolonged abdominal discomfort. The outbreak has even drawn international attention: UK public health officials have issued warnings for travelers returning from the U.S. who may have consumed Taylor Farms lettuce, after reporting several imported cases among recent visitors.

    Headquartered in California, Taylor Farms is a cornerstone of the North American fresh food supply chain, supplying not only major retail grocers but also leading fast-food chains including McDonald’s and Taco Bell, with a workforce of more than 25,000 employees across its operations. The back-to-back outbreaks have renewed scrutiny of food safety protocols for imported fresh produce from Mexico, which supplies a large share of U.S. fresh fruits and vegetables year-round.

  • WHO says Congo’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak started months before it was declared

    WHO says Congo’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak started months before it was declared

    In a stark update on the spiraling public health crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Monday that the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in recorded history emerged in February, three full months before it was officially declared to the public on May 15. Responders are now scrambling to contain a virus that has consistently outpaced containment efforts, against a backdrop of systemic and security challenges that make effective intervention nearly impossible.

    Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, told reporters that genetic sequencing of virus samples has traced the outbreak’s origin back to February. Early cases of the disease were misdiagnosed as malaria and typhoid, a critical error that allowed the virus to spread undetected through communities for months. Compounding this early delay, initial testing protocols only screened for the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, not the rare Bundibugyo variant driving this outbreak. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccines or targeted treatments currently available, leaving frontline workers with limited tools to slow transmission or improve patient outcomes.

    As of the latest official government count, the outbreak has already recorded 4,200 confirmed cases, with more than 1,900 people dead. This current outbreak has killed people faster than any Ebola event in history, outpacing even the devastating 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that was long considered the worst on record. That 2014-2016 crisis took eight months to reach 1,000 deaths; this outbreak hit that milestone in a fraction of the time.

    The crisis is unfolding in one of the most difficult operating environments for global health responders. The affected region, which sits near the borders of South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda, has been torn apart by decades of rebel conflict that gutted local healthcare infrastructure long before the first Ebola case emerged. Today, responders face multiple overlapping barriers: strikes by unpaid health workers have left critical facilities understaffed, rebel groups threaten aid teams, and long-traumatized communities often distrust intervention efforts, fueled by widespread misinformation that claims Ebola does not exist at all.

    Frontline teams must navigate remote, unpaved roads to reach affected communities and have repeatedly reported critical shortages of personal protective equipment. A large population of displaced people living in informal settlements also lack access to clean water for regular handwashing, one of the most basic measures to slow transmission of the virus, which spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, vomit, and semen, as well as contaminated surfaces like bedding and clothing. Ebola causes severe organ damage and is fatal in the majority of untreated cases.

    Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated the urgency of the crisis during a visit to Congolese capital Kinshasa, noting that the virus is spreading faster than response teams can keep up. In some of the worst-affected hot spots, the number of new confirmed cases is doubling at an alarming rate. Health authorities estimate that between 60% and 70% of all new cases are occurring in people who were not on the contact tracing monitoring list, meaning transmission is happening through unrecognized community spread that is nearly impossible to track.

    Already fragile access to routine healthcare in the region has become even worse as the outbreak escalates. Pregnant women and people with other acute medical conditions are now avoiding health centers out of fear of contracting Ebola, putting their own lives at unnecessary risk from treatable conditions.

    Late declarations of Ebola outbreaks are not unprecedented. The 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people across at least 28,000 confirmed cases, was officially declared in March 2014, but retrospective investigation later found the first human infection occurred three months earlier, in December 2013.

  • Men aged 50-69 to test every two years for prostate cancer in massive reform

    Men aged 50-69 to test every two years for prostate cancer in massive reform

    Australia has introduced landmark, world-first updates to its national clinical guidelines for prostate cancer early detection, marking the first major overhaul of the framework in 10 years. Unveiled by the Albanese government this Thursday, the revised 2026 Clinical Guidelines for the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer expand access to routine Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) testing, with the dual goal of catching aggressive cases earlier and cutting harm from unnecessary overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

    Developed in partnership between the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Cancer Council Australia, the new testing framework expands eligibility to multiple at-risk groups. Under the reforms, all Australian men between 50 and 69 years old will now qualify for biennial PSA screening. Men aged 45 to 49 will be able to complete an initial baseline test, while high-risk groups — including those with a first-degree family history of prostate cancer, carriers of a BRCA2 gene mutation, and men of sub-Saharan African ancestry — can access biennial testing starting as early as age 45.

    Jeff Dunn AO, head of research at the Prostate Cancer Foundation Australia, described the updated guidelines as a watershed moment for Australia’s approach to managing the disease, noting the country is among the first in the world to adopt this modern, evidence-based structure. “These guidelines represent the culmination of years of scientific work, national collaboration, and rigorous evaluation of the evidence,” Dunn explained. “Much has changed over the past decade. The evidence has matured, diagnostic technologies have advanced, and clinical practice has evolved substantially. For the first time, Australia now has a contemporary national framework that better balances the benefits of detecting aggressive prostate cancer early with the need to minimise unnecessary harms.”

    Australian Health Minister Mark Butler emphasized that the policy reform is designed to ensure that at-risk men and their families can access targeted support at the earliest possible stage. Dan Repacholi, Labor Member of Parliament and the federal government’s special envoy for men’s health, who has long been a leading advocate for improved prostate cancer care, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to advancing detection and treatment outcomes.

    “As the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, prostate cancer has significant impacts on men, their families and the wider community,” Repacholi said, urging men aged 45 and over to consult their general practitioner about their individual risk and whether screening is appropriate for them.

    Prostate cancer currently holds the title of Australia’s most frequently diagnosed cancer, with roughly 28,000 new cases recorded each year and approximately 4,000 annual deaths from the disease. To support rollout of the new guidelines, the federal government has allocated $320,000 in funding to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, which will develop and deliver targeted education and awareness training for frontline primary care providers. Since GPs serve as the first point of contact for most men seeking cancer screening, the training program is expected to smooth implementation and improve guideline adherence across the country.

  • One man works to slow the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and he’s doing it unpaid

    One man works to slow the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and he’s doing it unpaid

    In the conflict-scarred, remote heart of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri province, the epicenter of the country’s surging Ebola outbreak, 29-year-old infection control specialist Wiza Bondele reports for duty every day. His mission is unwavering: slow the spread of the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded. But since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, he has worked without pay, joining hundreds of other frontline responders from burial teams to ambulance drivers who put their lives on the line every day with no financial compensation.

    Bondele, a veteran of the 2018-2020 Congo Ebola response, volunteered to return to duty when the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola reemerged earlier this year. Ituri province accounts for nearly 90% of all confirmed cases in this current outbreak, and his years of experience on the frontlines made him a critical asset to the response. Today, his daily routine includes decontaminating high-risk treatment areas, screening visitors for fever, and enforcing mandatory handwashing protocols—work that brings him into regular contact with patients who are bleeding or vomiting, the bodily fluids that transmit the deadly virus. Even with this constant exposure, he and hundreds of fellow workers have yet to receive the $510 monthly salary they were promised when they signed on.

    While authorities have promised to resolve backlogged payments via mobile money transfers, only a small fraction of workers have received any compensation, and even those who were paid have not received their full wages. For Bondele, who supports his wife, child, and extended family, the financial strain has reached a breaking point. On one recent morning, he ran out of fuel for his motorcycle while commuting to work. With no cash to refill the tank, he left the bike with neighbors and walked the remaining 8 miles to the hospital, arriving with his shoes completely worn through.

    Latest government data puts this outbreak at more than 4,000 confirmed cases, with over 1,800 deaths recorded. This makes it the second-largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history, outpaced only by the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people, and deadlier than the 2018-2020 Congo outbreak that claimed at least 2,200 lives. Complicating the response further, the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which no approved vaccines or targeted treatments currently exist.

    In recent weeks, hundreds of unpaid workers including Bondele have joined strikes and protests to demand back pay, at times abandoning treatment facilities and leaving critical response gaps as the virus continues to spread faster than responders can track it. Workers warn that months of unpaid wages have crushed morale and directly undermined patient care, with one treatment center’s staff announcing they would remain on strike until concrete solutions to the pay crisis were implemented. Government Ebola response officials have acknowledged the issue, blaming logistical delays for the backlog and stating they expect to clear all outstanding payments soon after switching from cash to mobile money disbursements. But for Bondele, these promises have done little to ease his anxiety over his and his family’s future.

    The pay crisis comes at a time when the Ebola response is already battling multiple overlapping challenges. Ituri province is gripped by ongoing armed conflict, and widespread misinformation has fueled deep public mistrust of health workers. Bondele says he has been threatened and even beaten while conducting community awareness outreach, as many residents reject basic prevention measures like regular handwashing. Restrictions on traditional burials, which require avoiding contact with highly contagious deceased patients, have stoked resentment, while persistent false rumors claim the outbreak is a hoax, that health workers are profiting from the crisis, or that hospitals withhold treatment from infected patients.

    This misinformation has repeatedly turned violent: crowds have burned down treatment centers, stormed hospitals to retrieve the bodies of deceased relatives, and attacked teams conducting safe burials. Public mistrust has also made contact tracing—one of the most critical tools for stopping Ebola spread—far more difficult, especially in remote communities already destabilized by rebel violence.

    Even with all these hardships, Bondele and hundreds of his colleagues continue to show up for work seven days a week, convinced their work is too important to abandon. “Working this job takes a lot of courage,” he said. “But today, I am discouraged.” He still holds out hope that authorities will follow through on their promises to pay workers what they are owed: “I hope their conscience tells them that I deserve to be paid.”

    This reporting was supported by the Gates Foundation, with The Associated Press retaining full editorial control over all content. Banchereau contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal.

  • DR Congo river boat under quarantine for Ebola after five deaths

    DR Congo river boat under quarantine for Ebola after five deaths

    Congolese public health officials have halted the Chinese-operated cargo-passenger vessel *Yingfeng 2* on the Congo River, 65 kilometers upstream from the capital Kinshasa near Bende Bende port, launching immediate Ebola and cholera screenings for all 255 people on board. The interception comes after a passenger who displayed fever and diarrhoea – symptoms consistent with both Ebola and cholera – disembarked at an earlier stop along the route and later died in hospital, with four additional deaths (two adults, a three-year-old child, and a newborn) also linked to the incident.

    Joint response teams from the Congolese Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) have boarded the intercepted vessel and deployed a mobile testing laboratory to process samples from all passengers and crew. As of the latest update, Health Minister Roger Kamba confirmed that none of the tested individuals have returned positive results for either virus. “For now, no-one has tested positive, and it is likely no one will be positive after 21 days of incubation has elapsed,” Kamba told reporters.

    According to BBC intelligence, the *Yingfeng 2* departed Kisangani – the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) third-largest city – approximately two weeks ago, travelling more than 1,700 kilometers downstream toward Kinshasa before the interception. Recent Ebola transmissions have been recorded in Kisangani, accounting for at least four local deaths. Kamba also clarified a key point of earlier misreporting: the deceased passenger disembarked in Mongala Province, which has not recorded any confirmed Ebola cases to date.

    To comply with WHO public health protocols, security forces have been ordered to quarantine the vessel offshore, preventing any potential movement of people that could spread the virus into the densely populated capital. Public health response teams remain on high alert to take further action once the quarantine perimeter is fully secured.

    The interception comes as the DRC grapples with its 17th Ebola outbreak, declared on 15 May this year. Caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola species – a variant not detected globally for more than a decade – the outbreak has continued to spread three months after it was first announced, with infections and fatalities still rising.

    As of current official counts, the outbreak has recorded 3,973 confirmed cases and 1,801 deaths, making it the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history. No specific antiviral treatments or approved vaccines exist for the Bundibugyo variant, though the first human clinical trials for a candidate vaccine are currently ongoing in the United Kingdom. More than 17,000 people who have had close contact with confirmed cases remain under active public health monitoring, 674 patients are currently in isolation or receiving treatment across five affected provinces, and 776 people have recovered from infection, per DRC health authority data.

    In Kinshasa, officials have stepped up preparations for a potential response to a Bundibugyo introduction, reinforcing disease surveillance and rapid response capacity at Maluku, the capital’s main overland and river entry point. While officials stress that the interception and quarantine of the *Yingfeng 2* are strictly precautionary measures, they underscore the severe public health risk the ongoing outbreak poses to the country.

  • Congo Ebola health workers protest unpaid wages, disrupting response as deaths top 1,800

    Congo Ebola health workers protest unpaid wages, disrupting response as deaths top 1,800

    BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A growing crisis over worker compensation has compounded the public health emergency unfolding in eastern Congo, where dozens of frontline health workers leading the response to the country’s record-fast Ebola outbreak walked off the job Thursday to demand long-overdue pay. The striking workers abandoned critical treatment facilities in the outbreak’s epicenter, even as international aid organizations continue to warn that the virus is spreading at an alarming rate that outpaces current response efforts.

    New government data updated through Tuesday and released Thursday confirms the outbreak has grown to 3,973 confirmed cases, with a total death toll of 1,801. This outbreak ranks as the second-largest Ebola event in recorded history, falling only behind the devastating 2014–2016 West African outbreak that infected more than 28,000 people and killed over 11,000 across the region.

    Thursday’s protest was held outside the governor’s office in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province – the region that accounts for nearly 90% of all of Congo’s confirmed Ebola cases. This demonstration marks the latest in a series of work stoppages over unpaid wages that have disrupted response operations for weeks. Striking workers, including frontline nurses who provide direct, life-saving care to Ebola patients, report they have not received base salaries or hazard bonuses since the outbreak was declared in mid-May. The outbreak is centered in one of Congo’s most remote, vulnerable regions that has already been destabilized by years of ongoing rebel conflict.

    “With this mismanagement, Ebola will never be eliminated from this province. We call on authorities at every level of government to intervene to find a quick solution to this issue,” said Edouige Makosi, one of the striking protesters.

    In past statements, Congolese officials have blamed complex logistical challenges for the persistent payment delays. As of Thursday, authorities had not issued any immediate response to requests for comment on the latest protests. Poor working conditions and lack of support for frontline response workers have been a persistent, core flaw throughout this outbreak. Beyond unpaid wages, dozens of health workers and facilities have been targeted by attacks from rebel groups and violent community mobs in recent months.

    During an official visit to Congo Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus publicly urged Congolese authorities to make supporting and caring for frontline Ebola responders a top priority. This week, the global medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders warned that the outbreak continues to spread at an “alarming and unprecedented rate,” noting that while response capacity has expanded in recent weeks, interventions still fail to reach at-risk communities fast enough to break chains of human-to-human transmission.

    Current government data shows 674 confirmed Ebola patients are currently receiving care in isolation facilities, the vast majority of them in Ituri province. While contact tracers are successfully monitoring at least 75% of people documented to have been exposed to infected patients, officials warn that a far more troubling trend is unfolding: between 60% and 70% of all new confirmed cases are detected among people with no recorded exposure to known cases. These unlinked cases are concentrated mostly in isolated rural areas, where access for response teams is severely limited by ongoing rebel violence and frequent population movement linked to informal mining activity.

  • WHO chief urges stronger Ebola response in DR Congo visit

    WHO chief urges stronger Ebola response in DR Congo visit

    The World Health Organization’s top leader has issued a urgent call for accelerated action to curb a fast-expanding Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), stressing the critical need to shield frontline medical workers during an official visit to the African nation this week.

    The DRC first declared its 17th documented Ebola outbreak on May 15, and the crisis has since escalated at an alarming rate. Updated WHO data puts the total number of confirmed cases at 3,874, with the death toll already reaching 1,751.

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began his trip in the DRC’s capital Kinshasa on Tuesday, with scheduled talks planned with Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, a spokesperson confirmed to news agency AFP on Wednesday. Following meetings with local and international response organizations, Tedros shared updates on the outbreak’s trajectory via social media platform X, warning that the virus is outpacing current containment efforts.

    “In some of the worst-hit hotspots, new cases have doubled over just the past week. The outbreak is spreading faster than our scale-up of the response,” Tedros wrote. “We must urgently and massively scale up all our efforts.”

    He outlined the core priorities for the expanded response: reaching every at-risk and affected community despite widespread instability and mass population displacement, strengthening inter-agency coordination, guaranteeing frontline health workers access to adequate protective gear, specialized training and ongoing support, and speeding up expansion of patient care, disease surveillance and safe, culturally appropriate burials for fatal cases.

    International support for the response picked up steam Wednesday, as the United States announced it would allocate more than $242 million in new emergency funding to fight the worsening outbreak. The State Department noted that this additional injection brings total direct U.S. financial support for the response to over $500 million, retaining the country’s position as the single largest financial contributor to global Ebola containment efforts in the DRC.

    This is Tedros’ second visit to the DRC since the outbreak began; he previously traveled to the northeastern province of Ituri in late May, a region that accounts for nearly 90 percent of all confirmed Ebola cases across the country. The five eastern DRC provinces affected by the outbreak are plagued by longstanding weak state governance and a near-total lack of robust healthcare infrastructure, creating major barriers to effective containment.

    The depth of the challenge facing response teams was highlighted this week in Mongbwalu, a mining town in Ituri, where staff at a local Ebola treatment center held protests over unpaid government stipends. Hospital sources report police fired warning shots to disperse the demonstrators.

    In a small step toward expanding care capacity, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that a new 100-bed Ebola treatment center opened Tuesday in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

    Ebola, a viral hemorrhagic fever transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, has claimed more than 15,000 lives across Africa over the past 50 years. The current DRC outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no officially approved vaccine or targeted treatment exists as of yet. But global scientific and pharmaceutical efforts are advancing rapidly to close this gap.

    Canada gave regulatory approval Tuesday for U.S. biotech giant Moderna to launch clinical trials for an experimental Bundibugyo candidate vaccine. At the end of July, the first volunteer received a dose of a separate experimental vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford, built using the same platform that powered the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. A third candidate, developed by Singapore-based Hilleman Laboratories, is also moving toward human trials. The WHO has identified the Hilleman candidate as the “most promising” of the three, as it uses the same rVSV technology platform as Ervebo, the only currently licensed Ebola vaccine, which targets the separate Zaire strain of the virus.

    In addition to vaccine development, two experimental treatments are already being tested on confirmed Ebola patients in Ituri: the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir, being trialed both alone and in combination. A third trial is also underway in Ituri for the oral antiviral obeldesivir, administered to people who have had confirmed exposure to Bundibugyo cases.

  • WHO chief arrives in Congo to support Ebola response as cases near 4,000

    WHO chief arrives in Congo to support Ebola response as cases near 4,000

    KINSHASA, DRC – The World Health Organization has confirmed that its top leader has traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to back expanding efforts to curb the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak the world has ever seen, as total confirmed infections near the 4,000 mark.

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus touched down in Kinshasa, the Central African nation’s capital, on Tuesday evening, per official statements from the WHO country office to the Associated Press. During this trip, his second visit to Congo since the outbreak was formally declared in mid-May, he is set to hold meetings with local response partners and Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi to align on next steps for scaling up intervention.

    The most recent data released overnight by Congo’s Ministry of Health puts the outbreak’s official case count at 3,874 as of Monday, with 1,751 recorded fatalities. In terms of transmission speed, this outbreak has outpaced every previous Ebola event in recorded history, ranking as the second-largest outbreak globally. It only trails the devastating 2014–2016 West African Ebola epidemic, which saw more than 28,000 total cases and over 11,000 deaths.

    The pathogen driving this current outbreak is the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola for which no universally approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists. Local health officials have noted that the virus was circulating undetected for weeks in remote areas of eastern Congo long before the outbreak was officially announced on May 15, allowing early transmission to go unchecked.

    A troubling hallmark of the outbreak is that a large majority of new confirmed infections are occurring among people not already on monitored contact lists of individuals exposed to known patients. This trend confirms that the virus continues to spread more quickly than the expanding response efforts can keep up with.

    Nearly 90 percent of all cases are concentrated in Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter. Many communities in Ituri remain cut off from response teams due to ongoing insecurity from active rebel conflict in the region. Further complicating operations, many frontline health workers walked off the job in recent weeks to protest delayed salary payments, though some workers have reported receiving backpay in recent days.

    During a visit this week to Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital, Africa Centers for Disease Control Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya echoed concerns about broken contact tracing systems, estimating that between 60 and 70 percent of new infections occur outside of monitored contacts. “We need to be innovative on the way to approach the contact list,” Kaseya stressed, calling for an urgent overhaul of current tracing protocols.

    Health officials add that late detection of infections remains one of the biggest systemic challenges, and is a core driver of the outbreak’s 45 percent overall fatality rate. In the 24-hour period preceding the latest health ministry update, 77 new cases were confirmed, alongside 44 reported deaths. Currently, 717 patients are receiving care in isolation facilities, while 749 people have recovered from the virus and been discharged.