First Ebola vaccine trial begins in DR Congo as cases pass 9,700

The first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s current outbreak began on Friday, with the first participants vaccinated in Bunia, the capital of the northeastern Ituri province and the epicentre of the epidemic, the World Health Organization said.

The trial, called Tumaini, which means “hope” in Swahili, will first test Ervebo, a vaccine approved against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, to see whether it offers any cross-protection against the Bundibugyo species behind this epidemic, for which no approved vaccine or treatment exists (https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/10/24/who-announces-start-of-ebola-vaccine-clinical-trial-in-dr-congo).

“Science gives us hope. Today, in Bunia DRC, the first participants were vaccinated in a new Ebola vaccine trial called Tumaini,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Friday (https://www.straitstimes.com/world/ebola-vaccine-trial-begins-in-democratic-republic-of-congo).

The trial uses a ring vaccination approach, immunising contacts judged to be at high risk of infection, and is designed as a single framework that can test several candidates. Two Bundibugyo-specific vaccines are expected to join it: an adenoviral-vector candidate from the University of Oxford and an mRNA candidate from Moderna (https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2026/10/24/who-says-first-ebola-vaccine-shots-given-in-dr-congo-trial-as-cases-pass-9700/240376).

The outbreak, declared on May 15, is the DR Congo’s worst ever, with more than 9,700 confirmed cases and more than 4,600 deaths, and has spread across eight provinces. The trial is coordinated by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and supported by WHO and the Congolese Health Ministry (https://www.nation.com.pk/international/24-Oct-2026/new-ebola-vaccine-trial-launched-dr-congo).