Congo starts Ervebo shots against a Bundibugyo outbreak that has no licensed vaccine

The Democratic Republic of Congo began injecting frontline health workers in Kisangani on 28 August with Ervebo, a vaccine licensed for Zaire ebolavirus, not for the Bundibugyo species now circulating. Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said more than 50,000 doses have arrived and that workers and contacts will be covered first. Africa CDC confirmed the start the same day.

WHO had approved 70,000 Ervebo doses for Congo. About 50,000 are for compassionate use in 14 health zones across Tshopo, Bas-Uele and Haut-Uele. Twenty thousand will go into a Phase 3 trial to test whether Ervebo protects people against Bundibugyo. Early animal work suggested some cross-protection. There is no licensed shot and no licensed treatment for this species. Oxford and IAVI have separate Bundibugyo candidates still in development.

The outbreak was declared on 15 May. Government figures cited by Reuters put cases at 5,794 and deaths at 2,786. An AP tally a day earlier listed 5,713 cases and 2,744 deaths. Either count makes this Congo's largest and deadliest Ebola wave and the world's second-deadliest on record. Ituri remains the core. Six provinces are now listed: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele. Kamba said teams will ring the Ituri belt first and then move inward.

The campaign is running through insecurity, displacement, a health-workers' strike and heavy population movement. Those conditions are why a vaccine licensed for a different virus is being used at all. Compassionate use is a legal path, not a guarantee of effect. The trial arm exists because the ministry needs a human answer, not only a mouse one.

Kisangani is a river city and a new front, not the original epicentre. Starting there is a bet that protecting workers on the expanding edge will slow the next jump. Whether Ervebo does that against Bundibugyo will not be known on the day of the first jab. The known numbers are the dose split, the six provinces and a death count that has already passed 2,700.