More than 16,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) late Friday (August 21, 2026), an AFP journalist saw, as the country faces its deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.
The vaccine, developed by the pharmaceutical company Merck, is approved against the Zaire strain of the virus, but not against the Bundibugyo strain currently circulating in the country. This month, WHO vaccine experts recommended a full-scale human trial of Ervebo, the only existing approved Ebola vaccine, to see if it offered cross-protection against the Bundibugyo strain. The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak, which has killed thousands of people, was declared on May 15 but is thought to have been spreading for several weeks prior. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Thursday (August 20) that the DRC would receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, produced in Germany. The Ebola outbreak in the DRC has already caused 2,516 deaths among 5,290 confirmed cases, according to the latest data published by the Congolese authorities.
The Ervebo vaccine “has already been used several times, and in particular on a very large scale during the 2018-2020 outbreak”, Samuel Roger Kamba, the DRC’s Minister of Health, told the press. Of the 70,000 doses made available to the DRC, 20,000 are intended for a clinical trial, and 50,000 for “frontline and health workers” in the DRC, the WHO explained on Thursday (August 20).
