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Scientists are racing to develop four Ebola vaccines to tackle the outbreak in DR Congo, two of which could be ready for clinical trials in two months, the head of a global vaccine coalition told Semafor.
More than 500 cases of the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no proven vaccine, have been reported in the outbreak, which is concentrated in eastern DR Congo.
Two of the experimental vaccines — one being developed by Oxford University scientists, and another by Moderna — harness technology used to create vaccines for COVID-19 and could be in trials by the end of summer, Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said.
Still, Hatchett cautioned, even if a vaccine performed well in clinical trials, it would take at least two more months to move to further trials and receive regulatory approval.
Emanuele Capobianco, director of global health security at GAVI, a global vaccine alliance, also warned in a separate interview that it was likely that it was “going to take several months, potentially years” to end the outbreak. He likened the current outbreak to the 2018 epidemic Zaire strain in eastern DR Congo which lasted two years, despite there being a vaccine for that strain.
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Health experts say the Bundibugyo strain is likely to have circulated, undetected, for weeks in the northeastern Ituri province where artisanal mining is an economic mainstay. Capobianco said a proven vaccine would be a “game changer” if proven to be as effective as the jab against the Ebola Zaire strain, which he said cut transmission by around 75% and reduced the mortality rate by 79%.
The spread of the Bundibugyo strain comes against the backdrop of the shuttering of USAID last year and deep cuts to Western aid budgets, which has led some to argue that a lack of resources reduced the presence of health workers on the ground, slowing the response to the outbreak.
“It’s clear that the identification of this outbreak as Bundibugyo was delayed,” said Hatchett. “I don’t want to speculate as to the causation there but it’s the kind of thing that you would expect in an environment where resources have been withdrawn.”
The View From Ethiopia
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has urged all African Union member states to “urgently review” and “strengthen” exit screening and public health measures at international airports, seaports and major ground crossings in response to the Ebola outbreak.
Africa CDC Director General Dr Jean Kaseya, in a letter to health ministers across the continent, urged countries to step up screening to reduce the risk of cross-border transmission while preserving safe movement, trade, humanitarian operations and economic activity, the body said in a statement.
Notable
- Investigators hunting for the Ebola outbreak’s “patient zero” are exploring several events, including a funeral procession in which the coffin was damaged, Reuters reports.