US health authorities on Friday raised their response level to the maximum to confront the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and announced the dispatch of experimental treatments to the country and to Uganda as well.
Satish Pillai, the official responsible for the epidemic response at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told journalists during a phone call: "According to our assessment, the risks facing the United States remain low."
Nevertheless, the CDC — the United States' primary health authority — decided to raise its response to Level 1, the highest level, as it did during the spread of the Ebola epidemic in 2014.
A CDC official said on Friday that the measure serves as an "internal signal" indicating that the situation "now represents the highest level of priority within the agency," and would therefore allow them to "mobilise additional personnel and resources" more rapidly if needed.
More than a month after the outbreak was declared, the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains out of control, having killed at least 304 people and infected 1,115 others according to the latest figures. It has also spread to neighbouring Uganda, where 20 cases have been recorded, including 2 deaths.
As part of the effort to combat the current outbreak, which is caused by the Bundibugyo variant of the virus — a relatively rare strain for which no approved vaccine or treatment currently exists — the United States announced on Friday that it is supporting the shipment of doses of "MBP134", an experimental treatment based on monoclonal antibodies, to both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
US health authorities stated in a communiqué that additional doses of this treatment will be sent to the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom for a clinical trial.