Bundibugyo's count has risen faster than the approved medical toolbox, with WHO's May 29 disease-outbreak notice reporting 134 confirmed cases across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, including 18 confirmed deaths, plus 906 suspected DRC cases and 223 deaths among suspected cases as of May 27. [1]

That advances the paper's June 2 warning that Bundibugyo still has no approved vaccine or specific treatment and its same-day source-date story about CDC and WHO tables moving on different clocks, because the higher count makes the qualifier more important rather than less. [1] [2]

CDC's clinician advisory says the risk of U.S. spread is low, but it asks clinicians to take travel and exposure history seriously, isolate and hospitalize compatible patients with exposure risk, and test while also pursuing routine care for other diagnoses. [2]

That is a medical systems story rather than a panic story, since the advisory tells clinicians not to let recent DRC or Uganda travel stop routine laboratory testing for other causes while Bundibugyo testing is underway, because patients can have concurrent infections or more common diagnoses. [2]

The DRC and Uganda travel notices repeat the practical sentence: there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for Bundibugyo virus disease, and early supportive care improves the chance of survival. [3] [4]

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago