Imagine battling a virus with no approved cure. A landmark trial has just kicked off in the heart of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization has confirmed that a trial of potential treatments for the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now underway, cbinews.tv reports.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Thursday that the first patient in DR Congo had already been enrolled. “The clinical trial of two therapeutics began, with the enrolment of the first patient,” he said.

Even without licensed drugs, some people are surviving the disease. But Tedros added: “We could save many more lives with safe and effective therapeutics in our toolkit.”

As of 30 June, the WHO has recorded 1,406 confirmed cases in DR Congo, with 301 suspected cases and 438 deaths. The outbreak was declared a public health emergency back in May.

The virus behind this wave is the Bundibugyo species. Here is the issue: there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for it. Each Ebola species needs its own vaccine. There are six known types, but only three have caused human outbreaks so far.

The trial is being run by the WHO and coordinated by scientists at DR Congo’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, Belgium’s Institute of Tropical Medicine, and the University of Oxford in the UK.

The outbreak has not stayed within DR Congo’s borders. Uganda has logged 20 confirmed cases and two deaths, while France reported one confirmed case as of 1 July.

It is a virus that targets the immune system and organs. It usually lives in animals, especially fruit bats, and jumps to humans when they handle infected wildlife. People only become contagious once symptoms start, which can take anywhere from 2 to 21 days to appear.

The symptoms start suddenly and feel like flu or malaria: fever, headache, and crushing tiredness.

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