The first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine in the outbreak gripping the Democratic Republic of Congo began Friday, the head of the World Health Organization said.
The DR Congo’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak has passed the 9,700-case mark, with the number of deaths exceeding 4,600.
Among the many challenges facing the response is the lack of any approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the epidemic.
Ervebo, a vaccine approved for use against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, will be put through a full-scale human trial in the DRC to see if it offers any cross-protection against Bundibugyo.
“Science gives us hope. Today, in Bunia, DRC, the first participants were vaccinated in a new Ebola vaccine trial called Tumaini, which means ‘hope’ in Swahili,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“This trial will help us understand whether any of the vaccine candidates designed for Bundibugyo virus work.
“In the meantime, the existing Everbo vaccine (licensed for use in preventing other Ebola virus disease) will be tested.
“WHO is supporting this DRC-led effort to find answers and save lives.”
The so-called Tumaini trial in the DRC — a single trial framework that can test the safety and efficacy of multiple vaccines — should also eventually incorporate two Bundibugyo-specific candidate vaccines, which are moving through earlier-stage, smaller-scale clinical trials.
One is a ChAdOx1 adenoviral vector jab being developed by the University of Oxford; the other, by the US-based Moderna group, uses mRNA technology.
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