Congo Begins Ebola Vaccinations to Fight Country’s Worst Outbreak on Record, Health Minister Says
Health workers are first in line as officials use 70,000 Ervebo doses and collect data on protection against Bundibugyo Ebola.
- On Thursday, Congo began vaccinating people against Ebola as Health Minister Roger Kamba officially launched the campaign in Kisangani, targeting frontline health workers and responders amid the country's deadliest outbreak on record.
- As of Tuesday, the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak had recorded 5,713 confirmed cases and 2,744 deaths, spreading across six provinces including Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu. The disease remains out of control due to insecurity and population movements.
- The World Health Organization approved 70,000 doses of Ervebo for the campaign. Authorities allocated 50,000 doses for frontline workers, while 20,000 will support a clinical trial to study whether the vaccine protects against Bundibugyo.
- Although Ervebo is approved for Zaire ebolavirus, officials are using it under a compassionate-use program for Bundibugyo. Placide Mbala Kingebeni, Africa CDC's director for research and clinical trials, said data will be collected to measure vaccine efficacy.
- The World Health Organization warned the outbreak is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola crisis, which killed more than 11,000 people primarily in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Vaccination efforts aim to prevent health workers from carrying the virus into communities.
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The Democratic Republic of Congo has begun vaccination against Ebola, while authorities are trying to keep the epidemic under control with the fastest spread ever recorded. More than 5,700 cases and 2,700 deaths have been confirmed so far, and WHO warns that the epidemic remains out of control and risks surpassing the one in West Africa from 2014-2016, the most deadly in history.
The authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) started vaccination against ebola in an attempt to stop an outbreak that has spread at an accelerated rate
For the vaccination campaign, the Congolese government is using a vaccine for a different form of the Ebola virus. It is being investigated whether that vaccine also works against the Bundibugyo variant, which is causing the current epidemic.
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