Ebola vaccine trial to start in DR Congo as warning issued over speed of infections

What the report says

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is preparing to begin an Ebola vaccine rollout that will include a clinical trial aimed at testing whether the Ervebo vaccine can help against the Bundibugyo strain driving the current outbreak. BBC Africa reports from Kinshasa that the World Health Organization has approved 20,000 doses for the trial and a further 50,000 doses for frontline health workers. Ervebo is already known to protect against the Zaïre species, but there is no proven vaccine or treatment for Bundibugyo.

The WHO has warned that infections in northern and eastern DR Congo are increasing rapidly and now span a wider area than France. The outbreak, declared three months ago, has caused close to 2,500 deaths, with WHO co-ordinator Julien Harneis saying about half of those deaths occurred in the last 20 days. The article says the crisis is the deadliest in the country’s history and the second-worst recorded globally, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic.

BBC Africa notes that the response has been complicated by conflict, mistrust of health authorities, traditional burial practices and early cases being mistaken for malaria or typhoid. In the east, the M23 rebel group has announced one-month restrictions on movement between government-held and rebel-held areas of North Kivu after reports that two travellers tested positive in a village under its control. The measures underline the challenge of containing Ebola across divided territory.