Vaccine entity Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is looking into inoculation candidates for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. A separate vaccine entity, GAVI, is working alongside CEPI for the effort.
“Considering the extremely limited available evidence on cross-protection against non-Zaire species, any decision to use this vaccine in the current BVD outbreak will require further assessments and will occur in accordance with WHO guidance, and only with the explicit informed consent and understanding of affected communities that the benefit of the vaccine against BVD is currently unknown,” GAVI said in a statement, discussing the use of a vaccine for a separate Ebola strain.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted two candidates for the vaccine, one leveraging the rVSV platform, although there are no doses available for clinical trials, and one leveraging the ChAdOx platform, which was used for COVID-19 vaccines, although there are no animal or human studies available for the vaccine.
CEPI’s board chair, Jane Halton, told reporters that she has “described this outbreak as being like an iceberg, we’ve seen the top of the iceberg, the top, as we get closer to it, it’s pretty large.”
She claimed that while there have been “hundreds of deaths,” Halton argued that the “truth of the matter is that real numbers are much bigger than that.” When asked if a vaccine could be prepared in 100 days, Halton said, “I can guarantee you that we will be in a position to respond faster than we would have been five years ago.”
