Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have launched a clinical trial of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, targeting the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the nation’s ongoing epidemic.
The study, supported by the World Health Organization, the Africa CDC, and Médecins Sans Frontières, plans to vaccinate approximately 20,000 high-risk individuals—primarily healthcare workers and frontline responders—across Ituri and North Kivu provinces over a three-month operational window, followed by a six-month clinical monitoring phase.
While Ervebo is globally licensed and proven effective against the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, no vaccine is currently licensed specifically for the Bundibugyo variant. The trial utilizes 70,000 doses drawn from global stockpiles to gather real-world data and evaluate whether the vaccine provides effective cross-protection against the active strain. The deployment in Bunia follows preliminary trial rollouts in Tshopo and Bas-Uélé provinces, where over 4,400 frontline personnel have already received doses.
The clinical evaluation comes amid one of the country’s most severe health crises, with the outbreak expanding across seven provinces and 63 health zones since its official declaration in May. Official public health figures report 7,672 confirmed cases and 3,699 fatalities, making the trial a critical attempt to leverage existing medical stockpiles alongside concurrent evaluations of experimental Bundibugyo-specific candidate vaccines.
TE/Sf/lb/abj/APA