An experimental treatment happens to be the solution to delay Alzheimer's symptoms in some people. These people are the ones who are genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s. These new findings form ongoing research has now been caught up in Trump administration funding delas. The early results of the study has been published on Wednesday and the participants too are worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline.

One of the participants had said, "It is still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having." The participant is named Jake Henrichs, form New York City, who is 50 years old. He is one of them to be treated in that study for more than a decade now and has remained symptom-free despite inheriting an Alzheimer's-causing gene that had killed his father and brother around the same age.

Slowing Down The Symptoms

Two drugs which can modestly slow down early-stage Alzheimer's are sold in the United States. These drugs clear the brain of one of its hallmarks, a sticky gunk-like part called the amyloid. However, there have not been any hints that removing amyloid far earlier, way many years before the first symptoms appear, may postpone the disease.

How Was The Research Conducted?

The research is led by Washington University in St Louis, which involved families that passed down rare gene mutation as participants. This meant it was almost guaranteed that they will develop symptoms at the same age their affected relatives did.

The new findings is based on a subset of 22 participants who received amyloid-removing drugs the longest, on average eight years. Long-term amyloid removal cut in half their risk of symptom onset. The study is published in the journal Lancet Neurology.

Washington University's Dr Randall Bateman, who directs the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Network of studies involving families with these rare genes says, "What we want to determine over the next five years is how strong is the protection. Will they ever get the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease if we keep treating them?”

The researchers before though did not know what exactly caused Alzheimer's which affects nearly 7 million Americans, most of them in their later life. However, it is clear that these silent changes occur in the brain at least two decades before the first symptom shows up. The big contributor. At some point amyloid buildup can trigger a protein named tau that then starts to kill neurons, which can lead to cognitive decline.

Researchers are now thus studying the Tau-fighting drugs and are looking into other factors, like inflammation, brain's immune cells and certain virus.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has expanded its focus as researchers have found more reasons for Alzheimer's. In 2013, the NIH's National Institute on Aging funded 14 trials of possible Alzheimer's drugs over a third targeting amyloid. By last fall, there were 68 drugs and 18% of them target amyloid. However, there are scientists too who think that amyloid is not everything and their is way more in the brain tissue, immune cells, and more which can be studied.

The latest outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, has so far affected 600 people and has caused 139 suspected deaths, as per the latest update by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Amid increasing testing, sequencing, and clinical trial efforts to tackle the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, a new study indicates a possible new spillover event from wild animals.

The study, led by scientists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, released the first complete genomes of Bundibugyo Ebola virus from the May 2026 outbreak. The initial genomes reveal a new spillover event.

As of now, the index case is a nurse who fell ill on 24 April and died three days later in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province in DR Congo. But she was unlikely to have been infected by a patient, as per experts.

Genomes Suggest Fresh Spillover Event

Scott Pegan, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, said that, similar to the Zaire and Sudan viruses, the Bundibugyo Ebola virus is not transmitted through the air.

“The Bundibugyo virus primarily spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids,” he said, adding that “the origin of this outbreak is likely what is considered a spillover event”.

He explained that the Ebola viruses are zoonotic in nature, with their primary hosts considered to be fruit bats.

“Spillover events of human infectious diseases occur when humans encounter infected animal feces or process bushmeat from infected animals,” Pegan said.

Researchers Trace Possible Wildlife Source

“The genomes, posted on a virological website on May 17, display a distinct genetic lineage that does NOT match any previously sequenced Bundibugyo strains, suggesting a recent introduction from an animal reservoir into humans rather than sustained human-to-human transmission,” said Cheng-Yi Lee in a post on social media platform X.

Cheng-Yi added that "phylogenetic analysis shows that the new sequences form a separate cluster, supporting the inference of a fresh zoonotic spillover".

The expert stated that the most plausible source of this spillover is wildlife inhabiting the Ituri forest. He pointed out to "fruit bats or other mammals known to harbor filoviruses, which could have been implicated in earlier outbreaks through hunting or contact with infected animal tissues".

The ecological surveillance ongoing in the region will be essential to identify the exact reservoir and to mitigate the risk of future spillover events, the scientists said.

“Ebola outbreak likely from a new spillover event rather than from previously circulating virus,” added Rajeev Jayadevan, citing the study.

The Co-Chairman of the National IMA COVID Task Force & Past President, Indian Medical Association, Cochin, explained that "the virus jumps to humans from infected animals such as bats, monkeys, and apes, usually through contact with blood, body fluids, excrement, or raw meat during hunting and butchering".

The Risk Of Future Ebola Outbreaks?

Further, Pegan shared that containing the current outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus is critical because "the more the virus interfaces with humans, the greater the chance for it to move from a spillover event to a crossover one".

Symptoms To Watch For

Symptoms of Bundibugyo virus disease are similar to other forms of Ebola and include:

• Fever
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Weakness
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Stomach pain
• Unexplained bleeding or bruising, usually in later stages of illness.

A US doctor infected with the Ebola virus, while treating patients infected with the deadly disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo has been admitted to Berlin's Charité hospital today.

The German Health Ministry acquiesced to a request from the United States for the patient to be treated in Germany rather than the United States due to the shorter travel time from Uganda and the Charité's experience in dealing with Ebola, Deutsche Welle reported.

The patient was flown to Berlin on a special medical aircraft and was then driven to the hospital in a specially designed vehicle escorted by police. The aircraft also carried six other people with whom the infected man had contact.

The German Health Ministry has reassured the public that there is no danger of the deadly virus spreading to the general population.

The Charité hospital specializes in the treatment of such cases and the patient is being housed in a completely isolated ward, separate from the rest of the clinic, the report said.

The German Health Ministry, however, noted that the mortality rate following modern treatment and specialist monitoring at a clinic like Berlin's Charité drops from around 60 per cent to 20 per cent-30 per cent.

Ebola Cases Rise To Over 130: WHO Considers Use Of Experimental Vaccines

Also read: UK Scientists Begin Drug Trial To Mend Broken Heart Syndrome

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been at least 500 suspected cases of Ebola and 130 suspected deaths due to the Bundibugyo strain in DR Congo since the new outbreak began in April.

Global health leaders are also considering whether vaccines or medicines still in development could be used to fight Ebola. Dr Mesfin Teklu Tessema, senior director of health at the International Rescue Committee, which works in the DRC’s Ituri Province, where most cases have been reported, told the The Guardian he expected current known cases were “the tip of the iceberg”.

Spread across the porous border to South Sudan, he said, was probably “a matter of when”. He warned that a weak public health infrastructure there meant “we are actually flying blind”.

A WHO official in Ituri province said the outbreak could take a long time to bring under control.

“I don’t think that in two months we will be done with this outbreak,” Anne Ancia, the WHO’s representative for the DRC, told reporters in Geneva at the World Health Assembly, pointing to a recent Ebola outbreak that took two years to end. Nearly 2,300 people died between 2018 and 2020 in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC to date.

“At the international level, [we are] looking at what candidate vaccines or treatment are available and if any could be of use in this outbreak,” Ancia added.

Australia has seen more than 220 cases of diphtheria so far this year, the biggest outbreak of the disease since national records began in 1991.

The Northern Territory has the largest number of positive cases at 133, followed by 82 in Western Australia, six in South Australia, and fewer than five in Queensland.

In response to the outbreak, the federal and state governments have mobilized, and the Commonwealth is preparing a support package to bolster vaccination rates for a disease once considered almost eradicated, ABC News reported.

Authorities are also waiting on the outcome of an investigation into a reported diphtheria-related death in the NT, which would be the first death from the disease in almost a decade.

Federal health minister Mark Butler said the numbers were “very concerning.”

“To put that in context, we've been recording case numbers nationally for about 35 years, and this, by a very big distance, is the biggest outbreak of diphtheria we've ever seen,” he said.

The cases are rising amid falling vaccination rates on the continent.

“I want to say this is not just very serious in terms of its numbers, but the vast majority of new cases we're seeing are respiratory diphtheria, which is far more serious in terms of its potential — about 25 per cent of cases are being hospitalized,” Butler said at a press conference on the NSW Central Coast.

Also read: US Doctor With Ebola Admitted To Hospital In Germany

2 Different Diphtheria Strains Identified

Two strains of diphtheria have been identified in Australia: respiratory and cutaneous. While respiratory diphtheria can affect the nose, throat, and airways, cutaneous affects the skin, causing pus-filled blisters on the skin or large ulcers surrounded by red, sore-looking skin.

The respiratory strain also spreads through droplets from coughing or sneezing, or direct contact with infected wounds.

Even with treatment, one in 10 people with respiratory symptoms die, according to the Australian CDC.

What Is Diphtheria?

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), diphtheria is a disease caused by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacterium that affects the upper respiratory tract and, less often, the skin. It also produces a toxin that damages the heart and the nerves. While it is a vaccine-preventable disease, multiple doses are needed to produce and sustain immunity.

Diphtheria has remained a leading cause of childhood death globally. But vaccination has long prevented mortality among children.

Those who are not immunized remain at risk. WHO also mentions that diphtheria can be fatal in 30 per cent of cases, with young children at higher risk of dying if they are unvaccinated and are not receiving proper treatment.

In 2023, an estimated 84 per cent of children worldwide received the recommended 3 doses of diphtheria-containing vaccine during infancy, leaving 16 per cent with no or incomplete coverage.

According to Australia’s Department of Health and Aged Care, between 1926 and 1935, more than 4,000 Australians died from diphtheria.

Vaccination started in Australia in the 1930s, and the disease has rarely been seen since the 1950s. But vaccine coverage has waned since the COVID pandemic, leading to a rising number of cases.

Diphtheria: Signs And Symptoms

Read More: UK Scientists Begin Drug Trial To Mend Broken Heart Syndrome

Within 2 to 5 days after exposure to the bacteria. The symptoms include

• a sore throat,
• fever,
• swollen neck glands,
• weakness.

Diphtheria: How the Disease Is Treated

It is usually treated with diphtheria antitoxin as well as antibiotics. Antitoxin neutralizes the circulating toxin in the blood. Antibiotics stop bacterial replication and thereby toxin production, speed up getting rid of the bacteria, and prevent transmission to others.

How To Prevent Diphtheria

Diphtheria can be prevented by vaccines and routine immunization. The vaccine is given most often combined with vaccines for diseases such as tetanus, pertussis, Hemophilus influenzae, hepatitis B, and inactivated polio.