Scientists Race To Develop Ebola Vaccines
By Semafor Africa Photos: Wikimedia Commons Scientists are racing to develop four Ebola vaccines to tackle the outbreak in DR Congo, including two which could be ready for clinical trials in two months, the head of a global vaccine coalition told Semafor. More than 500 cases of the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no proven vaccine, have been reported in the outbreak, which is concentrated in eastern DR Congo. Two of the experimental vaccines — one being developed by Oxford University scientists, and another by Moderna — harness technology used to create vaccines for COVID-19 and could be in trials by the end of August, said Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Still, Hatchett cautioned, even if a vaccine performed well in clinical trials, it would take at least two more months to move to further trials and regulatory approval. Emanuele Capobianco at global vaccine alliance GAVI, meanwhile, said a proven vaccine would be a “game changer,” but warned in an interview that it was likely “to take several months, potentially years” to end the outbreak. He compared it to a 2018 Ebola epidemic in eastern DR Congo which lasted two years, despite there being a vaccine. Health experts say the disease is likely to have circulated, undetected, for weeks in the northeastern Ituri province, where artisanal mining is an economic mainstay.
Black News 
By Semafor Africa
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Scientists are racing to develop four Ebola vaccines to tackle the outbreak in DR Congo, including two which could be ready for clinical trials in two months, the head of a global vaccine coalition told Semafor.
More than 500 cases of the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no proven vaccine, have been reported in the outbreak, which is concentrated in eastern DR Congo.
Two of the experimental vaccines — one being developed by Oxford University scientists, and another by Moderna — harness technology used to create vaccines for COVID-19 and could be in trials by the end of August, said Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Still, Hatchett cautioned, even if a vaccine performed well in clinical trials, it would take at least two more months to move to further trials and regulatory approval.
Emanuele Capobianco at global vaccine alliance GAVI, meanwhile, said a proven vaccine would be a “game changer,” but warned in an interview that it was likely “to take several months, potentially years” to end the outbreak. He compared it to a 2018 Ebola epidemic in eastern DR Congo which lasted two years, despite there being a vaccine. Health experts say the disease is likely to have circulated, undetected, for weeks in the northeastern Ituri province, where artisanal mining is an economic mainstay.
