A doctor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo named Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum has found what is being called the first ever "cure" for the Ebola virus. Since the disease first hit, thousands of research scientists around the world have been studying it.

But it was an African doctor - who lives at the heart of the epidemic - who made the first breakthrough.

Dr Tamfum had been part of a clinical trial of four experimental Ebola treatments carried out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But the trial was stopped early, after two of them showed strong signs of being able to save patients’ lives.

“Today, we have started a new chapter. From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is not curable,” Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, head of the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, a partner in the trial, said at the press conference.

“This advance will, in the future, help save thousands of lives.”

The two treatments will now be made widely available and could help end the yearlong outbreak in the DRC, which has already killed more than 1800 people, scientists say.