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World Health Organisation (WHO) experts announced Tuesday that the Democratic Republic of Congo will launch its first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine by late October.
The trial aims to combat the country’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak, which has surpassed 9,000 cases and claimed over 4,000 lives.
Health officials currently face severe containment challenges due to the complete lack of approved vaccines or medical treatments for the specific Bundibugyo species driving the epidemic.
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Researchers will evaluate Ervebo—a vaccine currently licensed for the more common Zaire Ebola strain—in a full-scale human trial to determine if it provides cross-protection against the Bundibugyo variant.
Named the Tumaini trial, this flexible research framework will initially test Ervebo while preparing to incorporate two species-specific candidate vaccines: an adenoviral vector jab from the University of Oxford and an mRNA candidate from Moderna.
WHO officials stressed that while violence and population displacement continue to disrupt surveillance and delay field research, positive safety data could quickly integrate the Oxford jab into the Tumaini framework.
Simultaneously, Doctors Without Borders is conducting a separate observational study by offering Ervebo to frontline healthcare workers across heavily impacted Congolese provinces as an interim protective measure.
