Wider use of Ervebo vaccine urged as DR Congo Ebola outbreak nears 11,000 cases
Stephanie Soucheray, MAToday at 4:29 p.m.
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
Ebola
The toll of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to mount in the eastern provinces of the country, with 10,910 confirmed cases and 5,234 confirmed deaths. The outbreak, which began in May, is the second largest in history and the fastest growing on record.
The crude case fatality rate for the current outbreak is now 48.7%.
Amid the rising case count, today Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for wider use of the Ervebo vaccine in the current outbreak. Though the Ervebo vaccine targets the Zaire strain of the virus, testing in animal models suggests that it also offers cross protection against illness caused by Ebola Bundibugyo, which has no licensed vaccines or treatments. And the group says there’s other evidence it might work.
MSF says anecdotal evidence shows cross-protection
MSF is urging the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization to lift restrictions limiting Ervebo to research use only on the grounds that the vaccine is not experimental.“Expanding access to ERVEBO offers the best immediate opportunity to help reduce severe illness and deaths while research on Bundibugyo-specific vaccines continues,” said Guyguy Manangama, MD, PhD, epidemiologist and deputy director of operations at MSF. “The absence of a Bundibugyo-specific vaccine should not prevent the use of the only vaccine currently available.”
Currently, Ervebo is being used in the DRC in a number of clinical trials. But MSF said there’s anecdotal evidence that staff that had been previously vaccinated with Ervebo in other Ebola outbreaks are faring better in the DRC.
“MSF teams involved in the Ebola response in DRC have observed encouraging signs among people vaccinated [in prior] Ebola outbreaks, including fewer confirmed cases and indications of lower mortality among those with confirmed infection,” said Etienne Gignoux, MPH, epidemiologist and director of the epidemiology department at Epicentre, MSF’s research center. “In an outbreak, decisions must often be made before the evidence is complete and the tools are ideal.”
The current outbreak is taking place in a transient and often violent area of the world, which has limited the response efforts of various groups.
On Friday, efforts to control the outbreak took another hit when Islamic State militants killed 33 people at a health post in North Kivu. According to officials, “hundreds” of Ebola patients at nearby hospitals fled the scene and are now in the community, officials said, potentially spreading the virus in new transmission chains.
