An Italian citizen who recently returned from the Congo, was taken to a hospital in Cagliari, Sardinia, where he was tested for detection. According to the first information, the doctors estimate that he has shown symptoms of the disease.
The citizen in question, whose personal details have not been released, has been placed in isolation and the test will be processed by Rome’s Infectious Diseases Hospital, Lazzaro Spallandsani.
From the Ministry of Health in Rome it was emphasized again, however, that the risk of a serious number of Ebola cases in Italy remains very low.
Two men are being treated in isolation in Brazil
Two men from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda with Ebola-like symptoms are being treated in isolation in Brazil, local authorities said.
The 37-year-old Congolese man “presents symptoms such as fever, which makes him a suspected case” of Ebola, Sao Paulo State authorities said, without specifying when the man arrived in Brazil. The patient “is in isolation” for preventive reasons, in a special hospital specializing in infectious diseases. From the laboratory tests, it has not yet been confirmed whether he is suffering from the virus, but the analyzes are continuing.
In Rio de Janeiro, the local State Secretariat of Health also announced that a Ugandan man who arrived in Brazil on May 22 with symptoms such as “cough, chills and diarrhea” has been quarantined. The city’s municipality told AFP that the man was suffering from malaria, but his case was “still under investigation”.
Authorities assure, however, that the risk of the Ebola epidemic spreading in Brazil and South America remains very low.
DR Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been hit by a new Ebola outbreak since May 15, and the World Health Organization has declared a global health alert. The virus, which causes a hemorrhagic fever with an extremely high fatality rate, has been detected in three provinces of DR Congo as well as in neighboring Uganda. According to today’s announcement by the African Union Health Service (Africa CDC), the two countries together record 263 confirmed cases and 43 confirmed deaths, while more than 1,100 suspected cases are still under investigation. In DR Congo, 246 deaths have been recorded, but laboratory tests have not yet confirmed that all the victims were infected with the virus.
WHO recommendations
The World Health Organization today released its recommendations regarding treatments and vaccine candidates that could tackle the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
On the sidelines of the WHO director-general’s visit to Bunia, the capital of Ituri province – the epicenter of the epidemic – the WHO announced through Platform X that expert groups and advisory bodies “assessed vaccines and potential treatments for the prevention and treatment of disease” caused by the Budibugyo strain.
According to this UN agency, many experimental drugs are “sufficiently promising to warrant preference for clinical trials.” There are no specific treatments or vaccines available for this strain.
Regarding treatment, independent experts recommended that the monoclonal antibodies MBP134 and Maftivimab, as well as the antiviral remdesivir, “be evaluated in clinical trials in confirmed cases.” A treatment that combines the antibodies with the antiviral is also suggested.
Close contacts of confirmed or suspected cases could receive, for preventive reasons, the oral antiviral obeldesivir. The WHO notes, however, that in some areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo it is extremely difficult to do effective contact tracing.
The vaccine considered “most promising” is rVSV Bundibugyo, which is given in a single dose and is being developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). However, it will be another seven to nine months before it is available for clinical trials. Another vaccine, ChAdOx1 Bundibugyo, of the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, may be available within two or three months to assess its effectiveness. The WHO points out, however, that “additional data” from animal tests are still needed to judge whether it is safe.
Ervebo, the only vaccine available for the Zaire strain of Ebola, does not appear to be effective against the Budibugyo strain.
The WHO, the governments of DR Congo and Uganda, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) and other scientific bodies are “collaborating to develop protocols” for the treatments, as part of their field trials. The proposed drugs and vaccines should only be used in clinical trials so that safe conclusions can be drawn.
In the meantime, WHO says the priority is to “break the chain of transmission” using tools that have been available for decades: patient monitoring, contact tracing and rapid diagnosis, isolation, patient care, community mobilization and safe burials.
According to the most recent tally by the Africa CDC, more than 1,000 suspected cases and 246 patients have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
