WHO to launch trials of two Ebola treatments in the DRC next week.

Trials of two separate potential treatments to combat the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are expected to begin next week, the World Health Organization announced on Wednesday.

Since the outbreak was declared on May 15, a total of 1,048 Ebola cases, including 277 deaths, have been confirmed in the DRC, although many experts believe the actual toll is significantly higher.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus, for which no approved vaccines or treatments exist.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that “preparations are now complete for a trial of two therapeutics that’s expected to start in DRC next week.”

The trial will evaluate whether the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir “can help to reduce mortality in patients with Bundibugyo virus – alone, or in combination.”

Tedros thanked the United States and Gilead Sciences for donating the doses needed for the trial.

The trials will commence at a hospital in the DRC’s northeastern Ituri province, where the vast majority of cases have been detected, Vasee Moorthy, who leads the WHO’s research and development blueprint arm, told AFP.

The number of patients required will depend on how effective the therapeutics appear to be: the more effective they are, the fewer patients will be needed, Moorthy said.

Between 500 and 1,000 people are expected to participate, he added.

Moorthy said preparations were almost complete and the trials should determine whether each treatment, as well as both in combination, are safe and effective.

Tedros said the WHO and its partners were working closely with affected communities “to inform and involve them in the trial.”

“We are also working to ensure the communities have access to the therapeutics, should they prove safe and efficacious,” he said.

Tedros said the trial would be conducted by the WHO and a consortium of partners, including the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), and Oxford University.

– Outbreak outpacing response –

The WHO chief praised the ramping up of the Ebola response.

Over the past five weeks, the number of treatment beds has increased from 10 to more than 500, while testing capacity in the DRC has risen from 30 a day to more than 3,000, he said.

However, he stressed that efforts to contain the virus still face “major challenges.”

“The outbreak is continuing to outpace the response,” he warned.

Capacity at treatment and isolation centres remains insufficient, and financial support for fighting the outbreak is lagging, Tedros said.

Ensuring safe and dignified burials of the highly infectious bodies of those who have died from the virus, which spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids, also proved difficult.

Tedros voiced particular concern that contact tracing was still below the level needed.

More than 8,200 contacts of cases have been traced – a rate of just over 70 percent, but still short of the 95 percent target thought necessary to get ahead of the virus.

Tedros said one factor hampering contact tracing efforts was the “reduced incentive” of having no vaccine to offer people who come forward, unlike previous outbreaks with the more common Zaire strain.

Affected daily labourers, for instance, faced a stark choice, he said.

If they identify themselves as contacts, “they don’t get vaccines,” but still risk being placed in quarantine, so “they can’t have even (earn) their daily bread,” Tedros pointed out.

The WHO and the African Union’s health agency have a joint continental preparedness and response plan that is seeking $518 million.