Clinical trials begin for Ebola vaccine in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo

Early volunteers, including frontline health workers in the city of Bunia in Ituri Province, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, received the vaccine on Saturday as part of a clinical trial, according to France Press journalists.

The vaccine used is Ervebo, which has proven effective against the “Zaire” strain of the virus, the most common strain in the past.

The clinical trial, which involves 20,000 people and lasts between nine and twelve months, aims to determine whether the vaccine can also provide protection against the “Bundibugyo” strain responsible for the current outbreak, for which there is currently no specific treatment or vaccine.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing its seventeenth Ebola outbreak in its history, which has become the deadliest in this vast Central African country within just a few months.

The outbreak originated in Ituri Province and was officially declared in mid-May. As of the latest figures released by the Congolese National Institute of Public Health on Saturday, it has caused 3,639 deaths and 7,541 infections, resulting in a case fatality rate of 48.3%. There have been 1,823 recoveries, while the virus is spreading across seven provinces.

In August, approximately 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, drawn from the global stockpile of anti-Ebola vaccines, were allocated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the National Institute of Public Health, more than 3,000 people have already been vaccinated in Tshopo Province (northeast) and more than 700 in Bas-Uélé Province (north) as part of the clinical trial.

Professor Steve Ahuka, the official in charge of the health response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, acknowledged on Saturday in front of journalists that “this vaccine is effective against the Zaire strain, but we do not know how effective it is against the Bundibugyo strain.”