WHO approves clinical trials on two new Ebola vaccines

File photo: Health workers in Ebola kits The World Health Organisation on Wednesday approved clinical trials for two new Ebola vaccines, as doctors fight to control an outbreak in Africa that has killed more than 5,300 people. “Last month, a vaccine trial began using the Ervebo vaccine, which is approved for Ebola virus, but not for Bundibugyo virus” ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

“Today, WHO expert groups are recommending adding two vaccine candidates to the trial” he added. Those two — ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469 — were developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus, he explained.

The DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research is leading the trial, backed by partners including WHO, said Tedros. “Vaccines are powerful tools, but they are not substitutes for the proven measures that can save lives now: early care, contact tracing, isolation, safe and dignified burials and trusted engagement with communities,” he added.

On Monday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Africa’s ongoing Ebola epidemic had killed more than 5,300 people, the vast majority of them in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A total of 10,444 cases have been confirmed, with a fatality rate of more than 50 percent, it added.

Related News Climate, health actions could save 1.6 million lives yearly — WHO 5.5 million nomadic children out of school in Nigeria — Report Nigerian-trained lawyer Dapo Akande elected ICJ judge Nigeria has also recorded an imported case of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the case in the Federal Capital Territory on October 20, involving a woman who had travelled from Uganda.

The laboratory confirmation on October 20 made Nigeria the fifth country to detect the virus since the outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 15, 2026. The index patient was subsequently evacuated to Switzerland on October 26 for further medical care, alongside her husband, who was identified as a close contact.

As of November 3, the NCDC’s situation dashboard listed one confirmed case and no deaths in Nigeria, with 62 contacts identified and 57 in quarantine. Nigeria’s previous Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014, when an infected Liberian traveller brought the virus into Lagos. The outbreak spread to Port Harcourt, resulting in 20 cases and eight deaths.

The WHO declared Nigeria free of Ebola transmission on October 20, 2014, after 42 days without a new case. AFP