On 2 July, the Democratic Republic of Congo began enrolling patients in a clinical trial to test two experimental treatments for Bundibugyo ebolavirus, the pathogen behind the country’s largest recorded outbreak of this strain. By 4 July, health authorities registered 1,528 confirmed cases and 492 deaths; weekly incidence was still climbing, signalling persistent community transmission. The trial, conducted at Bunia’s Evangelical Medical Centre in Ituri province, marks the first urgent attempt to identify a therapy for a strain for which no vaccine or specific treatment exists.

The study, supported by the World Health Organisation and partners including Oxford University and the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine, will compare the broad-acting antiviral remdesivir and the engineered antibody cocktail MBP134, either separately or in combination. The primary endpoint is survival 28 days after treatment initiation. A second phase will later offer the drugs to healthcare workers and other high-risk contacts. In parallel, the outbreak response has been reinforced: WHO granted emergency-use listing for a molecular test that can rapidly detect Bundibugyo virus, and laboratory capacity across the affected region has been scaled to process over 2,000 samples each day. Kenya, meanwhile, has increased health screening at the Malaba border crossing to limit cross-border spread.

Among residents of Bunia, the trial has stirred fragile hope. Some survivors and community members describe it as a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ and have volunteered for future phases. But mistrust persists, with others fearing the experimental drugs could cause more deaths and questioning why elected leaders are not the first to be tested. The response is hampered by structural obstacles: nearly three out of four Ebola deaths during this outbreak have occurred outside health centres, amid overcrowded isolation wards and delays in seeking care. Community refusal of post-mortem sampling and insecurity in conflict-affected areas like North Kivu further complicate containment. A French physician repatriated from DRC became the first Ebola patient to be treated and discharged in France, illustrating the international dimension of the crisis.

The trial is expected to last three to six months and may require up to 1,000 participants to yield a definitive result, according to WHO research advisers. Officials intend to expand trial sites to other locations once security permits. The most immediate concern remains the risk that the virus reaches displacement camps in Ituri, where over a million people live in crowded conditions—a scenario that, by one Congolese minister’s estimate, could cause up to a thousand deaths per day. The world will be watching whether the Bunia trial can deliver a therapeutic breakthrough before the outbreak spirals further.