Wider use of Ervebo vaccine urged as DR Congo Ebola outbreak nears 11,000 cases

The crude case fatality rate for the current outbreak is now 48.7%.

Cases and health response

Amid the rising case count, today Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for wider use of the Ervebo vaccine in the current outbreak.

Though the Ervebo vaccine targets the Zaire strain of the virus, testing in animal models suggests that it also offers cross protection against illness caused by Ebola Bundibugyo, which has no licensed vaccines or treatments.

And the group says there’s other evidence it might work.

MSF is urging the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization to lift restrictions limiting Ervebo to research use only on the grounds that the vaccine is not experimental.

“Expanding access to ERVEBO offers the best immediate opportunity to help reduce severe illness and deaths while research on Bundibugyo-specific vaccines continues,” said Guyguy Manangama, MD, PhD, epidemiologist and deputy director of operations at MSF.

“The absence of a Bundibugyo-specific vaccine should not prevent the use of the only vaccine currently available.”

Currently, Ervebo is being used in the DRC in a number of clinical trials.