Congo began vaccinating frontline health workers on Thursday with a shot licensed for a different Ebola, as it tries to contain the largest and deadliest outbreak the country has recorded. Reuters, writing Friday from Dakar, said Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba started the campaign in Kisangani, capital of Tshopo province. The outbreak, declared May 15, has infected 5,794 people and killed 2,786 on the latest government figures Reuters used — the world’s second-deadliest Ebola epidemic on the books. The virus is Bundibugyo. The vaccine, Ervebo, is licensed against Zaire. There is no approved Bundibugyo vaccine or treatment.
The International Coordinating Group released 70,000 Ervebo doses after Kinshasa asked: 50,000 for health and frontline workers, 20,000 for a Phase 3 trial of whether the Zaire shot works on this species. Africa CDC’s Placide Mbala Kingebeni said the compassionate-use round is meant to cover 14 health zones in Tshopo, Bas-Uele and Haut-Uele, three provinces hit more recently. Kamba said Congo had received more than 50,000 doses and would first vaccinate the ring of provinces around Ituri, where the outbreak was found and is still heaviest, then move inward. Six provinces are in it: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele.
Early animal work suggests some cross-protection. Human effectiveness is what the trial is for. Oxford and IAVI have Bundibugyo-specific candidates in development. Xinhua, citing Thursday’s ministry numbers as of Tuesday, had 5,713 confirmed cases and 2,744 deaths, a 48 percent fatality rate. Either count is already a catastrophe. Kisangani is where they started putting needles in arms.