Ebola spreads to area under Islamic State control as cases mount

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached Mambasa, a part of the country run by Islamic State militants, the Wall Street Journal reported today. 

Health workers do not travel to the area, which is chaotic and violent, making containment and contact tracing impossible, sources told the paper. 

In related news, Reuters reported that residents attacked an Ebola burial team in South Kivu province earlier this week, exposing the coffin and body of an Ebola patient, which is a major transmission risk. 

According to the latest update from BNO News, there are 363 Ebola cases and 62 deaths in DRC. In neighboring Uganda, there are 15 confirmed cases and one death. Residents have also been attacking health workers, and the World Health Organization has continuously warned that community trust will be essential to controlling the outbreak.

Quick takes: New antibiotic for UTIs, guidance for gonorrhea antibiotics, antimicrobial use in livestock

• Indian drugmaker Wockhardt announced earlier this week that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its novel intravenous antibiotic for complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs), including pyelonephritis, in adults. Marketed under the brand name Zaynich, the drug combines the cephalosporin antibiotic cefepime with zidebactam, a beta-lactamase inhibitor. Company officials say it will provide an additional option for treating cUTIs caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. “The threat of drug-resistant infections is an escalating crisis, leaving clinicians with fewer tools to treat patients facing these aggressive pathogens,” Wockhardt Chief Medical Officer Dennis Deruelle, MD, said in a company press release. “The FDA approval of Zaynich is a monumental step forward in validating a new option for these underserved populations.”
• The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a group of experts to develop guidelines for the use of two new oral antibiotics for gonorrhea. The experts will meet later this year to consider whether zoliflodacin and gepotidacin, both approved by the FDA in December 2025, should be recommended for the treatment of uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea. The WHO said in a news release that the emergence of gonorrhea strains that are resistant to ceftriaxone, which is the last reliable first-line treatment in most settings, “makes the integration of new treatment options an urgent priority.”   
• A new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests that, under current trends, global antimicrobial use in livestock is projected to grow 30% by 2040 compared with 2019, driven by demand for meat in emerging economies. The report argues that while use of antimicrobial growth promoters leads to measurable short-term productivity gains in livestock and phasing out such use will create an immediate economic shock, rising rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will have a bigger economic impact, with cumulative production losses under a high-AMR scenario reaching $318 billion by 2040. The report concludes that phase-out policies “should combine restrictions with practical measures that accelerate the availability and adoption of effective alternatives, strengthen animal health services, and reduce disease pressure at the farm level.”