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WHO approves trials for two new Ebola vaccines

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The approval was announced by WHO Director-General,  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a news conference in Geneva.

He said WHO expert groups had recommended adding the two vaccines on Monday.

The trials will be held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, led by the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, sponsored by WHO and  partner bodies.

The two vaccines are ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469.

Until now, there has been no vaccine or treatment designed specifically for Bundibugyo, which has a fatality rate of about 50 percent. The only trial running since last month used Ervebo, a vaccine made for the Zaire strain.

Results from the new vaccine trials are expected in early 2027.

The Africa CDC says 10,444 cases of Bundibugyo have been confirmed, mostly in DRC. Kenya has reported nine cases, including two deaths, and Nigeria has reported one case.

Amid this, a British healthcare worker infected with Ebola is being evacuated from the DRC to the United Kingdom for specialist treatment

 

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