The Democratic Republic of the Congo will receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine from the global stockpile, the World Health Organization announced, even though the vaccine is not authorized for the Bundibugyo strain currently driving the country’s largest-ever outbreak, which has killed 2,476 people since mid-May and recorded 5,208 confirmed cases.

Of the 70,000 doses allocated to the DRC, 20,000 will be used in an advanced-phase clinical trial to evaluate the vaccine’s effect on the Bundibugyo virus, according to the WHO. Ervebo was the first vaccine approved to combat Ebola, but specifically for the Zaire strain.

RELATED: DRC Ebola Cases Top 5,100

The WHO stated that it is unknown whether Ervebo can protect against the Bundibugyo virus in humans, stressing the importance of the trials to generate new evidence, and noted that no vaccine or treatment has been tested against this disease to date.

I welcome the decision by the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision to release an initial 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Of these, 20,000 doses will support a Phase 3 clinical trial to better understand the vaccine’s… https://t.co/HG8KR4gDNB

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 20, 2026

The outbreak, declared a global emergency by the WHO, prompted the Congolese government, with UN and partner support, to launch the “Congo River without Ebola” initiative, aimed at intensifying epidemiological surveillance, the text said. Experts believe the outbreak, officially declared in mid-May, may have actually begun in February.

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.