First person gets new experimental vaccine for Ebola - BBC

What the report says

BBC News reported that Ed Hunt, a 37-year-old man from the UK, has become the first person in the world to receive a new experimental vaccine targeting Ebola. The jab was administered in Oxford as part of an early-stage trial after Hunt volunteered, saying he was prompted by reports about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the BBC, the vaccine was developed by University of Oxford scientists in eight weeks and uses the same vaccine-platform approach as the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab. The phase one study is recruiting 50 healthy adults aged 18 to 55. Researchers are assessing safety and whether the vaccine triggers an immune response that could help protect against the Bundibugyo type of Ebola. Prof Teresa Lambe, who led the Oxford team, stressed to the BBC that participants will not be exposed to Ebola as part of the trial.

The development matters because the current outbreak is linked to the Bundibugyo species, while an existing licensed Ebola vaccine is for the Zaire species and is not effective against Bundibugyo, the BBC reported. The article said four vaccines for Bundibugyo are in development, with Oxford’s the first to reach human testing.

The Oxford team told the BBC that another small vaccine trial is expected to start soon in Uganda, followed by a larger efficacy study in DR Congo. The Serum Institute of India has already produced 600,000 doses for possible use if trials succeed. BBC reported more than 2,500 confirmed Ebola cases in DR Congo so far, including just over 1,000 deaths.