The Democratic Republic of Congo received its first 16,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine in Kinshasa on Friday as authorities battle a rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak, part of a 70,000-dose allocation approved for the country by the global Ebola vaccine stockpile.
Footage shows the vaccine shipment being received at N’djili International Airport, where Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare Samuel Roger Kamba was present for the delivery.
“In our planning, we decided, on the advice of scientists, to use the Ervebo vaccine, which we all know and which has already been used several times, notably on a very large scale during the 2018 to 2020 epidemic,” Mulamba said.
“We decided to use this vaccine, knowing there would be two phases: a research phase and a compassionate-use phase. The research phase will involve 20,000 doses, while the compassionate-use phase will involve 50,000 doses,” he continued.
According to the minister, the outbreak has already affected more than 5,000 people and caused more than 2,300 deaths.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said 50,000 of the allocated doses are intended for healthcare and frontline workers, while 20,000 will be used in a Phase 3 clinical trial.
“Today, we are receiving the first batch of more than 16,000 doses. We already had 2,000 doses that were sent to Tshopo, and now we are receiving 16,000 more toward a total of more than 400,000 doses that we requested,” the minister added.
Kamba also thanked all the partners who helped secure the vaccine doses.
Ervebo is approved against the Zaire Ebola virus but not the Bundibugyo strain driving the latest outbreak, and WHO says there is still insufficient evidence to determine whether it provides protection against that strain.
The outbreak, declared in May, had reached 5,290 confirmed cases and 2,516 deaths by Friday, while insecurity, displacement and weak health infrastructure have complicated containment efforts.
Source: Viory
