Ebola in DR Congo: 10,532 cases and 5,126 deaths by 1 November
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Rwanda News Agency
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had reached 10,532 confirmed cases and 5,126 deaths by 1 November, according to health authorities. Eight provinces are affected, while the WHO is preparing to integrate two vaccines against the Bundibugyo strain into a clinical trial.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had reached 10,532 confirmed cases and 5,126 deaths by 1 November, or nearly one death for every two recorded cases. Eight provinces were affected, mainly in the east of the country, with Ituri the worst-affected province, according to Congolese health authorities cited by Rwanda News Agency.
The World Health Organization announced on Wednesday the forthcoming integration of two vaccine candidates designed against the Bundibugyo strain into an ongoing clinical trial in the DR Congo. They are ChAdOx1, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and mRNA-1469, developed by US laboratory Moderna. Their integration was recommended by a group of independent WHO experts and remains subject to approval by Congolese health authorities.
This is a first for the Bundibugyo strain, against which no vaccine has yet demonstrated efficacy in humans. The Ervebo vaccine has already proved effective against the Zaire strain, but its efficacy against Bundibugyo remains unknown because of differences between the two viruses, according to the WHO cited by Rwanda News Agency.
The announcement comes after the WHO approved two Ebola vaccine trials in the DR Congo on 4 November, followed by the announcement of two new vaccines joining a clinical trial in the DR Congo on 5 November.
