WHO Backs Two Ebola Vaccine Trials

The World Health Organization has approved clinical trials for two Ebola vaccines built specifically for the Bundibugyo strain, a step that matters because the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been moving faster than the tools available to stop it.

WHO said its expert groups recommended adding the two vaccine trials as health workers try to contain what the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention described as the fastest-growing outbreak in the DRC’s history. The agency said 10,444 Bundibugyo cases have been confirmed. Al Jazeera, citing WHO and regional health authorities, reported that the strain has killed more than 5,300 people since May, mostly in the DRC.

What is established is narrow but important: these are clinical trials, not an approved answer. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said an existing trial had been using Ervebo, a vaccine approved for the Zaire strain of Ebola, not for Bundibugyo. The two newly authorised candidates are designed for the strain now spreading. WHO said results are expected in early 2027.

That distinction is not technical trivia. Ebola vaccines are not interchangeable in the way a headline can make them sound, and strain-specific protection is one reason this outbreak has been so hard to manage. WHO also said there are no treatments designed specifically for Bundibugyo.

The trial is being led by the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, with WHO and other partners backing the work. Tedros said the vaccine candidates were developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India and Moderna.

Even if the trials go well, vaccination is only one part of outbreak control, and not the part that can wait for data. Tedros said early care, contact tracing, isolation, safe burials and trusted work with communities remain the measures that save lives now. That is a practical warning against reading “trial approved” as “solution found.”

WHO said it is helping countries bordering the DRC prepare for cross-border spread. Al Jazeera reported that Kenya has recorded nine cases, including two deaths, and that WHO has confirmed one case in Nigeria.

Tedros also called for countries to lift travel restrictions linked to the outbreak, arguing that such measures can punish disclosure and make governments less willing to report cases quickly. In an epidemic, that kind of silence can travel faster than any border control.