First Ebola Drug Trial Patients Enrolled in DRC
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- Partners treatment trial has enrolled its first patients in the DRC, testing remdesivir and MBP134 against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, with results expected after 700–1,000 enrollments.
- WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency on 17 May, and the trial launched just six weeks later — a pace scientists say is unprecedented compared to prior Ebola responses.
- Prof Laurens Liesenborghs confirmed both drugs showed strong efficacy in animal models and are now being tested in humans to determine if they reduce mortality in Bundibugyo cases, which kill about one in three infected.
- Frontline burial teams in Ituri province report violent community resistance and non-payment despite dangerous work, with team members like Bahati John suffering physical attacks and Ovide Maliabo narrowly escaping lynching.
- Gilead Sciences and the US government have donated enough remdesivir and MBP134 for 1,200 trial participants, and the WHO is negotiating post-trial access should the drugs prove effective.
- Prof Amanda Rojek credited DRC’s INRB and prior trial experience during Ebola and mpox outbreaks for enabling the rapid launch, contrasting it with the over-one-year delay seen in West Africa’s 2014–16 epidemic.
Why it matters: The trial’s launch within six weeks of the emergency declaration accelerates a response that previously took over a year, offering potential life-saving treatments while frontline workers face unpaid risks and community hostility — delays in pay and trust could undermine even the fastest science.
