For decades, just mentioning the Ebola virus has been enough to terrify people. Although rare, it is highly contagious. Untreated, it kills the majority of victims within weeks. Health care workers who treat Ebola patients and scientists who study the virus must wear full-body protective gear to be safe.
For the past year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a nation in Africa, has faced one of the worst Ebola outbreaks in history. But now, new treatments are raising hopes of beating it.
Two drugs recently tested on Ebola patients saved 90 percent of them. The treatments are now being offered to all Ebola patients in the DRC. Researchers have also developed a new vaccine to keep people from becoming infected with the virus. It could prevent future outbreaks.
Still, the current crisis won’t be easily fixed. The recent cases are in remote areas of the DRC, some of which are controlled by armed groups. Many people there have suffered through years of violent conflict and don’t trust that health care providers are there to help.
But the new treatments are encouraging. “This changes the face of the disease,” says Ashish Jha of the Harvard Global Health Institute in Massachusetts. “When the world focuses in a certain area, like Ebola, and puts a lot of science and effort into it, we can make amazing progress in very short order.”