BY WHO – AFRICA
Kampala, Brazzaville, Geneva – The first doses of one of three candidate vaccines against Sudan ebolavirus arrived in Uganda yesterday. These will be evaluated in a clinical trial called the Solidarity Against Ebola or Tokomeza Ebola.
The arrival of the 1200 doses of candidate vaccines just 79 days after the outbreak was declared on 20 September marks a historical milestone in the global capacity to respond to outbreaks. To start Phase 3 trials in Guinea during the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2015, it was 7 months from declaration to arrival of vaccines. This was a great achievement and set historical records at the time. That trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of vaccines against the Zaire ebolavirus—the one responsible for the West Africa outbreak and more recently, outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But there are no licensed vaccines against the Sudan ebolavirus species responsible for the current outbreak in Uganda, thus the need for the current trial.
“Uganda is showing that life-saving research can be promptly organized in the midst of an outbreak,” said Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Acero, Uganda’s Minister of Health. “We will continue to fight the outbreak using the effective tools we already have, which are rapid surveillance to find cases, contact tracing teams identifying those who have been exposed, health workers providing care to those who are sick with the virus, and engaging the community throughout the response, but having a vaccine for this and future outbreaks is important.”
The vaccine is one of the three candidates that were recommended for the trial by an independent WHO expert panel: Sabin Institute’s ChAd3-SUDV. The other two, cAdOx1 biEBOV from Oxford University/Jenner Institute/Serum Institute of India and Merck/IAVI’s SV-SUDV, will be added to the trial when doses arrive.
