Ebola Vaccine Trial Begins in DR Congo to Test Protection Against Bundibugyo Virus

A clinical trial has begun in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assess whether vaccine candidates can protect people against the Bundibugyo virus, the cause of the country’s current Ebola outbreak.

The first participant was vaccinated on October 23 in Bunia, in Ituri province, as part of the Tumaini trial. “Tumaini” means “hope” in Swahili. The trial is an adaptive Phase 2/3 study designed to evaluate several vaccine candidates within one framework.

The first candidate to enter the trial is Ervebo, a vaccine licensed for Ebola disease caused by the Zaire ebolavirus species. It has not been established whether Ervebo protects people against Bundibugyo virus, and there is currently no approved vaccine specifically for that virus. The trial will gather evidence on the candidate’s safety and performance against the outbreak strain.

Tumaini will use a ring-vaccination approach, focusing on contacts considered at high risk of infection. Researchers plan to add two Bundibugyo-specific candidates to the trial: one developed by Moderna and another from the University of Oxford in collaboration with the Serum Institute of India. Preparations for those candidates are under way, according to the trial partners.

The study is being led in the DRC with national health authorities and research partners. Its results could help determine whether any of the candidates are useful against Bundibugyo virus and guide future outbreak responses. The trial’s launch does not mean a vaccine has been proven effective against this strain.

The DRC and its partners are continuing other outbreak-response measures alongside the research. The trial partners reported 9,552 confirmed cases and 4,602 deaths in the DRC as of October 21.