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The Democratic Republic of Congo will receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine as health authorities step up efforts to contain what officials have described as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners announced the allocation on Thursday, saying the vaccine could provide an important boost to the response, despite the current outbreak being caused by a different strain of the virus.
Ervebo is licensed to protect against the Ebola virus, but not the Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak in eastern Congo. However, the WHO said there are indications that the vaccine could still offer some protection.
“Early laboratory and animal data suggest it may provide some protection,” the agency said in a statement.
Of the 70,000 doses, 20,000 will be reserved for a Phase 3 clinical trial to determine how effective Ervebo could be against the Bundibugyo virus. The remaining 50,000 doses will be administered to frontline and healthcare workers, following recommendations from WHO experts.
The outbreak has so far killed 2,476 people out of 5,208 confirmed cases, according to authorities.
Health officials say the outbreak is spreading at an unprecedented pace, surpassing the speed of previous Ebola outbreaks. It is reportedly spreading nearly three times faster than the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak, which remains the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, claiming more than 11,000 lives.
The response has been complicated by the absence of approved vaccines or treatments specifically targeting the Bundibugyo virus.
Another concern is that many newly identified cases are being found among people who were not previously under monitoring. That suggests the virus is spreading beyond known chains of transmission, putting additional pressure on health workers and surveillance teams trying to keep pace with the outbreak.
