By Jennifer Rigby
LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) – A panel of experts led by the World Health Organization meets on Tuesday to discuss whether there are any vaccine options to help tackle an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The virtual meeting follows more than 130 suspected deaths and 500 cases linked to the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, according to the WHO, which, along with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has declared it a public health emergency.
There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has a fatality rate of up to 40%.
VACCINE OPTIONS
However, there is a vaccine named Ervebo, manufactured by Merck, that is used for the Ebola Zaire strain but has shown evidence of providing some protection against Bundibugyo in animal studies.
The potential for testing this and other options will be on the agenda of the meeting of the WHO Technical Advisory Group, the WHO and other scientists said. But the final decision will lie with the governments of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, where two confirmed cases have also been found. Potential treatments will also be discussed.
“When you have an outbreak with a strain that does not have countermeasures, we are going to advise on the best approach to take,” said Dr Mosoka Fallah, acting director of the science department at Africa CDC. “We will look at what evidence we have and make a decision.”
The vaccine group Gavi holds a stockpile of Ebola vaccines. Its chief executive, Sania Nishtar, said 2,000 doses were already in Congo, if the experts decided it should be used in a trial there.
Some experts said the outbreak could still be difficult to control.
“Our concern about this outbreak is pretty high,” said Richard Hatchett, head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which funds the development of new vaccines and is looking at potential candidates.
He said a 2018-19 outbreak in the same region of Congo, caused by Ebola Zaire, took two years to control because of the security situation there, even with a vaccine that was already approved and available for use.
“The security situation is very serious, and so testing things in clinical trials will be challenging, but will be necessary as well,” he said.
There are “substantial” barriers to moving a Bundibugyo-specific vaccine toward emergency or clinical use, said Courtney Woolsey, assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
“From a regulatory standpoint, Bundibugyo outbreaks are rare and unpredictable, which makes traditional efficacy trials difficult,” Woolsey said.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Additional reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Timothy Heritage)
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