DR Congo Receives Over 16,000 Ervebo Vaccine Doses to Combat Deadly Ebola Outbreak

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has taken delivery of over 16,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine as the nation confronts its most severe Ebola crisis to date.

Arriving in the capital, Kinshasa, late on Friday evening, the 16,250 doses represent the initial delivery of a 70,000-dose commitment announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners on Thursday. Additional shipments are scheduled to arrive next week.

While the vaccine is approved for the Zaire strain of the virus, the currently circulating Bundibugyo strain lacks an approved vaccine or treatment. Nonetheless, preliminary data from animal trials indicate it may provide partial protection, according to the WHO.

Samuel Roger Kamba, the DRC’s health minister, informed reporters that Ervebo has been deployed on multiple occasions previously, noting its use "on a very large scale" during the 2018 to 2020 outbreak.

The WHO stated that out of the 70,000 total doses designated for the DRC, 20,000 will support a late-stage clinical trial evaluating its efficacy against the Bundibugyo strain. The remaining doses are earmarked for front-line and health workers.

The current outbreak has resulted in over 2,500 deaths from nearly 5,300 confirmed cases, prompting a United Nations warning this week that infections are continuing to grow "exponentially." Although officially declared in mid-May, the outbreak is believed to have originated weeks earlier.

Statistics from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that transmission has not yet reached its peak and could potentially triple. Experts note that containment efforts have been severely hampered by ongoing armed conflict, delays in case identification, and inadequate infrastructure in eastern DRC.