Follow-Up: WHO Launches Ebola Vaccine Trial in DR Congo as Kenya Records Second Death

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced on Friday, October 23, that the first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine during the current outbreak had begun in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the first participants vaccinated in Bunia, the capital of the northeastern province of Ituri, the centre of the epidemic. (GSM, via Reuters)

The trial, named Tumaini, which means "hope" in Swahili, began with the Ervebo vaccine, which is approved against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola. The trial will assess whether Ervebo offers any cross-protection against the Bundibugyo species behind the current epidemic, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Tumaini uses a single trial framework to assess the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity of several candidates, with ring vaccination focused on contacts and others at high risk. Two Bundibugyo-specific candidates are expected to join the trial shortly: a ChAdOx1 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and an mRNA vaccine from the US company Moderna, both still in earlier-stage clinical trials.

"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," Tedros said in a post on X, adding that the trial will help establish whether vaccine candidates designed for the Bundibugyo virus work and that WHO is supporting the DRC-led effort. Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said the launch marked a critical step towards establishing whether candidate vaccines can effectively protect people against the Bundibugyo virus. The trial's principal investigator, Hugo Kavunga of Congo's Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale, said the priority is to establish which vaccines can safely and effectively protect those at risk.

According to the latest figures from Congo's health authorities as of October 20, the country had recorded 9,704 confirmed cases, including 4,687 deaths, a case fatality rate of 48.3 percent. The outbreak, declared on May 15 and designated a public health emergency of international concern two days later, is the largest and deadliest ever recorded in Congo and the second-largest Ebola outbreak globally, after the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic. It has now been reported in four African countries, the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak on the continent.

In Kenya, the health ministry said late on Friday that the country had recorded a second Ebola death: a 65-year-old woman, a close relative of Kenya's first case, who developed symptoms during quarantine. Kenya's first case was a man who travelled from Congo to Nairobi and died at a Nairobi hospital on October 5. Kenyan authorities have traced 135 contacts, all placed in quarantine, with nine confirmed cases and two deaths; the remaining seven patients are receiving care in two isolation facilities, and the ministry said there was no evidence of community spread. Earlier this week the US State Department advised Americans to reconsider travel to Kenya and raised its travel advisory level for the country because of health risks.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 刚果（金）北基伍省 Pinga 埃博拉疫苗接种现场（2019年资料图）。照片：MONUSCO Photos，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons

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