Ebola: WHO launches vaccine trial in Congo – first volunteers vaccinated in Bunia
The trial tests whether the Ervebo vaccine also protects against the Bundibugyo virus. The outbreak has already killed more than 4,600 people.
Symbolic image · Photo: MONUSCO Photos / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
A clinical vaccine trial has begun in the fight against the worst Ebola outbreak in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that the first participants had been vaccinated with Ervebo in Bunia, the capital of hard-hit Ituri province. The vaccine is approved against the more common Zaire strain; the trial will test whether it also protects against the Bundibugyo virus driving the current epidemic. The trial, named Tumaini, uses ring vaccination, immunizing contacts at high risk of infection, explicitly including pregnant women and children aged 12 and older.
Two candidates developed specifically against Bundibugyo – a viral vector vaccine from the University of Oxford and an mRNA vaccine from U.S. drugmaker Moderna – are expected to join “shortly,” according to the vaccine initiative CEPI. Al Jazeera reported more than 9,700 cases and over 4,600 deaths since the outbreak was declared in May. The WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern. The virus has also been detected in other countries, including Kenya and Nigeria, where a woman who traveled from Uganda tested positive; 44 contacts are being monitored there.