The Ebola epidemic, which continues to spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has claimed 2,011 lives out of 4,381 confirmed cases, according to the latest figures released by Congolese authorities on Tuesday.
This assessment brings the current epidemic, which is spreading in conflict-ridden regions of the east and northeast, closer to that of 2018-2020, the deadliest to date in the DRC with nearly 2,300 deaths out of 3,500 recorded cases.
The DRC declared on May 15, several weeks late, its 17th Ebola outbreak, already considered the largest in its history and likely to "become the largest ever recorded in the world", according to Sania Nishtar, director of the Gavi vaccine alliance.
Starting in the province of Ituri (northeast), it has spread to several provinces in the northeast and east, notably North Kivu, regions where the presence of the State is fragile and health infrastructure is largely deficient.
The mortality rate of the current outbreak is estimated at 45.9% by Congolese health authorities.
A vaccine that is moving into phase 3
WHO experts on Friday recommended evaluating the Ervebo vaccine, the only approved vaccine against Ebola, in a clinical trial, due to the lack of a specific vaccine against the Bundibugyo variant currently prevalent in the DRC.
The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, hailed the "good news" on X.
According to WHO experts, the extensive data already available, particularly on the safety of the Ervebo vaccine, makes it possible to consider an evaluation directly in phase 3, a step generally carried out on a large scale with thousands of people.
Doses of Ervebo from the global stockpile of Ebola vaccines, created and funded by the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, should be made available to support clinical trials, the organization said in a statement released after that of the WHO.
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3 other vaccine candidates in development
Gavi detailed that this global stockpile of Ervebo, which is produced by the American pharmaceutical company Merck, contains approximately 500,000 doses, some of which are permanently stored in the DRC due to the frequency of epidemics in the country.
Founded in 2000, the Gavi organization brings together public and private donors to help developing countries obtain vaccines at affordable prices.
Canada has also authorized the American pharmaceutical giant Moderna to launch clinical trials for its vaccine against Bundibugyo.
Two other candidates are also in development: the «rVSV Bundibugyo» vaccine, presented by the WHO as «the most promising» and developed by Hilleman Laboratories, and a vaccine from Oxford University, whose first volunteer received a dose at the end of July.
The United States announced on Wednesday that it had allocated more than $242 million in additional funding to combat the Ebola epidemic in the DRC.
Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes a hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
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