Ebola: Africa CDC plans to use vaccine for different strain as outbreak spreads

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control pledged to deploy a vaccine for a previous Ebola strain in the current DRC outbreak, with test cases indicated a potentially live-saving level of protection.

Agencies are on high alert amid reports that the rapidly spreading Ebola Bundibugyo virus species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has infected 19 internally displaced people, killed five of them, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).

Moderna has vaccinated the first participants in a trial for a Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine, as the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to battle its fastest-growing outbreak on record.

DR Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed 1,707 people since May. With no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain, the WHO is accelerating trials as Ituri's cases climb.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spiralling out of control, with more than 1,700 deaths recorded in just 14 weeks and contact tracing failing to contain the virus.

[UN News] Results may be months away, but efforts are advancing towards enhanced treatment and the world's first vaccine for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday as deaths and cases rise in the largest ever outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The trial, backed by up to $50 million from CEPI, comes as the Congo outbreak surpasses 3,700 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths

The first human trial will run at three sites in Canada and aims to enroll about 80 healthy adults

There is uncertainty over when the Ebola outbreak might peak after already killing thousands in eastern Congo