LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- The United States is stepping up its response to the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in Africa by deploying an experimental treatment alongside thousands of rapid diagnostic tests to strengthen disease control efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
The intervention is being coordinated by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) through its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Health officials said the measures are designed to improve patient care, speed up case detection, and support ongoing research into effective treatments and vaccines for the virus.
Unlike the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, the Bundibugyo species currently has no approved vaccine or licensed treatment, making the outbreak particularly challenging for health authorities.
To address the gap, ASPR is facilitating the transfer of doses of MBP134, an experimental monoclonal antibody therapy developed with Mapp Biopharmaceutical.
The treatment will be made available for compassionate use in affected countries while also being supplied for a randomized clinical trial led by the University of Oxford to assess its effectiveness against the virus.
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Health officials noted that MBP134 has demonstrated promising activity against multiple Ebola species in preclinical studies and has successfully completed an early-stage safety trial.
They added that data collected during the current outbreak could play a key role in future regulatory decisions regarding the treatment.
Meanwhile, BARDA has pre-positioned 2,500 rapid Ebola diagnostic tests for possible deployment to Africa.
The tests are expected to improve early detection of infections, allowing health workers to isolate cases more quickly and strengthen public health responses.
In addition to treatment efforts, BARDA is also advancing the development of a vaccine specifically designed for the Bundibugyo strain. The agency has issued a request for proposals seeking vaccine candidates based on the same technology platform used to develop Merck’s Ervebo vaccine, the first Ebola vaccine approved in the United States, which targets the Zaire strain.
Ultimately, the latest measures highlight growing international efforts to curb the outbreak while accelerating research into medical tools that could improve preparedness for future Ebola emergencies.
