Inside the study for a remedy to fight Congo’s deadliest Ebola outbreak

RWAMPARA, Congo (AP) — More than 250 participants have been enrolled in a trial for a drug that could stop them from contracting Ebola in Congo, in what experts have described as a critical step to try to fight the deadliest outbreak of the disease in the Central African country. The drug is targeted at Bundibugyo virus, which is responsible for the fast-moving outbreak and is without an approved vaccine or treatment. The trial began in July and is one of several studies launched to find some protection and another way of at least slowing the outbreak.

The Associated Press spoke this week to participants and doctors at the health center where the trial is taking place in the eastern province of Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak. The participants include people who have been exposed to the disease in this outbreak, among them health workers and patients’ relatives. At least 8,300 confirmed cases, including 4,000 deaths, have been recorded since this Ebola outbreak was declared in mid-May in eastern Congo.

It has spread to seven provinces and continues to outpace efforts to track and slow it, authorities say. The trial is testing Gilead’s experimental antiviral pill, called obeldesivir, which is given soon after suspected contact with the virus to prevent the disease from developing. That approach is called post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP.

The drug aims to stop the disease before it spreads One participant in the trial known as EBO-PEP told AP that she enrolled in the study in August after her husband tested positive for Ebola. She says so far no one from her family developed symptoms. She and other trial participants requested anonymity to protect their privacy due to the sensitive nature of the Ebola outbreak and the medical protocol involved.

“I realized that if I even touched my husband — and I did touch him, his vomit, everything — (it meant that) I was a direct contact. I could have also passed on this contagious disease. I could have been contaminated,” the participant said.

She said she knew of entire households which had become infected after a family member tested positive for Ebola. But so far no one from her family has developed symptoms, she says. Ebola disease only spreads once symptoms begin.