BUNIA – The Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday launched an Ebola vaccination campaign for healthcare workers in Bunia, the center of the country’s fastest-spreading outbreak of the disease. Ituri’s provincial governor said front-line staff were prioritized because they face exceptional exposure while playing a central role in the emergency response.
Medical personnel and other workers directly involved in the Ebola response are receiving Ervebo, a vaccine that proved effective during earlier outbreaks caused by the more widespread Zaire strain. Researchers are still conducting clinical trials to determine whether it can protect against the Bundibugyo virus, which is responsible for the current outbreak and has no licensed vaccine or treatment.
The initial vaccination effort covers the Bunia and Mongbwalu health zones in Ituri province, according to health officials. Both locations have been among the areas most severely affected by the outbreak.
“Our collective duty is to protect life,” Ituri’s military governor, Maj. Gen. Gaby Kasongo Mulumba, said Saturday. He described the decision to vaccinate front-line workers as a deliberate step, saying they are “particularly exposed and deeply involved in the response.”
Authorities plan to vaccinate approximately 20,000 front-line workers across Ituri and North Kivu over the next six to nine months.
Government figures released Saturday showed 7,541 confirmed Ebola cases nationwide, including 3,639 deaths. A further 1,823 people have recovered. Centered largely in Ituri, the outbreak is now considered the deadliest among the 17 Ebola outbreaks recorded in Congo.
Containing the virus has been made harder by armed insecurity, widespread displacement, a strike by health workers and constant population movement. The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak remains uncontrolled and could overtake the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Dr. Jeannot Elua, who spoke with The Associated Press at a Bunia medical facility, described the vaccination as “beneficial.”
“We healthcare workers don’t really have a choice: we are going to receive it,” Elua said. He added that some people in the area had already received the earlier vaccine and said he had also taken it because vaccination was mandatory.
Dr. Jean Paul Uzele, another health worker on the front line, received Ervebo during Congo’s 10th Ebola outbreak. He said he was uncertain about whether people vaccinated previously should receive another dose.
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“If it arrives, we will receive it too,” Uzele said. “But the question is whether we need to be vaccinated a second time.”
Ervebo was also introduced last month in Kisangani, in Tshopo province. That campaign was expected to reach 14 health zones across Tshopo, Bas-Uele and Haut-Uele provinces.
The vaccine’s use comes with important scientific limitations. Ervebo is licensed to prevent Ebola virus disease caused by the Zaire strain, not the Bundibugyo strain driving the current outbreak.
The World Health Organization said last month that 70,000 Ervebo doses had been approved for use in Congo.
Of those doses, about 50,000 are designated for healthcare and other front-line workers. The remaining 20,000 will support a clinical trial examining whether Ervebo offers protection against Bundibugyo Ebola, which currently has neither an approved vaccine nor a licensed treatment.
Ervebo is being administered through a compassionate-use program. Such programs allow doctors to provide a medical product in life-threatening circumstances even when it has not been specifically authorized for that particular disease or use.
Health officials believe Ervebo may provide some protection against Bundibugyo virus because the two Ebola viruses are related. However, researchers have yet to establish whether the vaccine can prevent disease in people exposed to or infected with the Bundibugyo strain.
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