The Democratic Republic of Congo said Wednesday it has approved the use of five experimental Ebola treatments on patients suffering from the hemorrhagic fever, as drug companies and health workers scramble to use the current outbreak to help find a cure for the deadly virus. Some 1,112 Congolese who had been in contact with confirmed Ebola patients in the current outbreak have already received an experimental vaccine that was shown to prevent new infections in Guinea in 2015. No new Ebola cases have been reported in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million people and major transport hub on the Congo River. Administering the experimental treatments is set to be more challenging than giving the vaccine—especially in the remote villages that are the epicenter of the current outbreak. The WHO said Tuesday that the risk of Ebola spreading to other parts of Congo remains very high, although its global threat remains low.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 06, 2018 18:00 UTC