DR Congo to receive 70,000 doses of Ebola vaccine used in past outbreaks, WHO says

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is set to receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, which has proven effective in previous Ebola outbreaks, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners said on Thursday.

The WHO said in a statement that while it’s not known whether Ervebo may protect against the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, “early laboratory and animal data suggest it may provide some protection.”

Ervebo is approved against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, but not against the Bundibugyo strain driving the current outbreak.

The allocation includes 20,000 doses for a Phase 3 clinical trial to assess the vaccine’s effectiveness against the Bundibugyo virus, the agency said.

The remaining 50,000 doses will be administered to frontline and health workers, as recommended by WHO experts.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the approval “an important example of global solidarity in action.”

He said the agency and its partners remain committed to supporting strengthened surveillance, rapid detection, quality care, community engagement and vaccination efforts to bring the outbreak under control.

The development of the outbreak

The outbreak, raging across six provinces in eastern DRC, has infected and killed people faster than any previous Ebola outbreak in history.

It is spreading around three times faster than the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people.

The case fatality rate currently stands at 47.5%, rising to as high as 70% in areas where response efforts are more challenging, including North Kivu province.

Experts believe the virus began spreading from the mining town of Mongbwalu as early as February, months before authorities declared the outbreak on 15 May.

Since then, Congo has recorded more than 5,000 cases and over 2,300 deaths, making it the country's deadliest Ebola outbreak on record.

The lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus has been a major challenge for frontline medics.

Most new cases have been detected among people who were not being monitored, indicating that the virus is spreading faster than efforts to track it and contributing to the high death toll.

The vaccine delivery is expected to provide a major boost to efforts to contain the outbreak.