Kisangani: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has begun an Ebola vaccination campaign, prioritising healthcare workers and other frontline personnel as authorities battle an outbreak of the disease in the country’s northeast.
The vaccination drive is focused initially on health workers in Kisangani, while authorities plan to expand the campaign to surrounding provinces near the outbreak’s epicentre in Ituri province, which borders Uganda.
However, the vaccine being administered is licensed for a different Ebola strain, and its effectiveness against the newly identified Bundibugyo strain has not yet been established. There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment specifically targeting the Bundibugyo strain, while clinical trials are underway to assess potential vaccines.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said more than 50,000 vaccine doses had been received. The World Health Organization (WHO) said 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine had been approved for use in the DRC, with around 20,000 doses allocated for a clinical trial examining their effectiveness against the latest strain.
Kamba said the vaccination campaign would gradually extend across provinces surrounding Ituri, using a ring vaccination strategy designed to help contain the spread of the virus. Health workers have called for additional vaccine supplies as authorities face significant challenges in controlling the outbreak.
The government figures showed that the DRC had recorded 5,713 confirmed Ebola cases, including 2,744 deaths. The outbreak is now considered the deadliest Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC.
The response has been complicated by insecurity, population displacement, a strike by healthcare workers and intense population movements, all of which are making it more difficult for health authorities to identify and isolate cases and trace contacts.
The WHO has warned that the outbreak remains out of control and could surpass the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Authorities and international health organisations are continuing efforts to expand vaccination, strengthen disease surveillance and develop an effective vaccine specifically against the Bundibugyo strain.
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