WHO approves clinical trials on two new Ebola vaccines

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended adding two new vaccine candidates to ongoing clinical trials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to combat an Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus.

According to WHO, the two vaccines, ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469, are the first vaccines developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus.

The DRC Ministry of Health confirmed that the death toll from the virus had risen to 5,163, while the total number of confirmed cases reached 10,603 as of 2nd November, representing a case fatality rate of 48.7 percent.