Great concern for him by the experts. It has broken out in the People’s Republic of, threatening an increase in deaths, while at the same time the information from the World Health Organization (WHO) is not at all reassuring.
In particular, the WHO says it could take up to nine months before a vaccine against Budibugio, the strain of the Ebola virus that causes the deaths, is ready.
WHO adviser Dr Vasi Murthy said on Wednesday that two potential “vaccine candidates” against the Budibugyo strain are being developed, but neither has yet undergone clinical trials.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 600 suspected Ebola cases and 139 possible deaths had been recorded, but the numbers were expected to rise given the time it took to detect the virus.
WHO: Emergency but not pandemic
“The WHO assesses that the risk of the epidemic is high at the national and regional level and low at the global level” and declared a public health emergency at the international level, but clarified that it is not a pandemic.
Ebola and the Budibugyo strain
The Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is believed to have been transmitted by bats.
Four strains of the Ebola virus are known to cause disease in humans, including the Zaire strain, which the Democratic Republic of Congo has dealt with many times and knows best.
The country is dealing with its 17th Ebola outbreak, but the Budibugyo strain — which hadn’t emerged in more than a decade — brings its own challenges.
Budibugyo virus has caused only two previous outbreaks – in Uganda in 2007 and in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 – in which it killed about a third of those infected.
Although it is less deadly than other strains of the Ebola virus, the rarity of the Budibugyo strain means there are fewer means of combating it.
