AUSTRALIA PERSPECTIVE

Canberra has no direct diplomatic stake in the Congolese Ebola outbreak, but its press treats Ebola as a global scientific issue with the seriousness of a country accustomed to regional biological risks. ABC News clearly headlines: 'The vaccine race intensifies as a deadly strain spreads' and provides a technical timeline that few other media outlets achieve. Nearly 250 suspected deaths, over 1,100 infected in the DRC and Uganda, but — as the editorial notes — 'the real spread is assumed to be much wider.' This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is neither a licensed vaccine nor treatment.

The scientific detail that distinguishes Australian coverage is the story of the rVSV candidate. ABC News reports that the IAVI has just signed with the University of Texas Medical Branch to develop this candidate, whose development was led by Thomas Geisbert. The virologist tells AFP that his 2013 research had already shown strong protection against Bundibugyo in monkeys — but that the vaccine 'remained dormant' for over a decade 'due to lack of interest, particularly from the pharmaceutical industry.' Thirteen years later, this forgotten candidate has become 'the most promising' according to the WHO. The sequence says in passing the economic cost of forgotten viruses: without a patient to treat in the North, no money for research in the South.

PerthNow covers in parallel Tedros' visit to Bunia and the briefing to Tshisekedi in Kinshasa. The Australian tone is measured, almost clinical: 906 suspected cases on Friday according to the WHO, 223 suspected deaths under investigation, 282 confirmed and 42 deaths according to the Congolese government on Sunday after 19 new positive tests. The Perth newspaper adds a geopolitical detail that few others relay: China has announced the sending of a team of medical specialists to the DRC. Australia is thus watching the Ebola response as a sanitary influence field where Beijing is advancing its pawns, and notes it without comment — a reflex of a medium power attentive to the balance of power in international aid.