Geneva: The World Health Organization has urged governments, researchers and health agencies to ensure that experimental Ebola vaccines and treatments are used only within properly supervised clinical trials as efforts continue to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The recommendation comes as health authorities work to respond to the outbreak while also trying to gather scientific evidence on medicines and vaccines that could help fight the disease. Unlike the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, the Bundibugyo strain currently has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, making research efforts especially important.
WHO experts said any promising therapies should be evaluated through carefully designed studies to ensure that patients receive safe treatment and that reliable data can be collected on their effectiveness. The agency stressed that clinical trials are the fastest and most responsible way to determine which medical tools can help control the outbreak and save lives.
Among the treatments identified for priority testing are MBP134, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, maftivimab from Regeneron, and the antiviral drug remdesivir developed by Gilead Sciences. WHO experts believe these therapies show enough promise to justify further investigation during the current outbreak.
The organization has also highlighted Gilead's oral antiviral medicine obeldesivir as a potential option for preventing infection among people who have been in close contact with confirmed Ebola patients. However, experts noted that its use would depend on effective contact tracing systems and would also require proper evaluation through clinical research.
In addition to treatments, researchers are accelerating efforts to develop vaccines against the Bundibugyo strain. WHO advisory groups have identified two leading vaccine candidates that could enter human trials in the coming months.
One candidate, known as the rVSV Bundibugyo vaccine, could be ready for testing within seven to nine months. Another candidate, the ChAdOx1 Bundibugyo vaccine, may begin trials within two to three months if ongoing animal studies continue to show positive results.
WHO has also advised against using the licensed Ebola vaccine Ervebo outside research settings for the Bundibugyo strain because there is not yet enough evidence to prove that it provides effective protection against this particular variant of the virus.
The current outbreak was officially declared by authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo earlier this month after laboratory testing confirmed cases in the eastern part of the country. Uganda has also reported imported cases linked to the outbreak, raising concerns about cross border transmission in the region.
Health officials say population movement between eastern Congo and neighbouring Uganda increases the risk of the virus spreading further. Surveillance teams have therefore intensified monitoring efforts at border areas while public health workers continue contact tracing and community awareness campaigns.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced that the organization is expanding Ebola testing capacity in affected areas. Additional laboratory support, surveillance systems and research partnerships are being deployed to improve the speed of case detection and outbreak response.
Scientists say the outbreak presents an important opportunity to learn more about the Bundibugyo strain, which has received less research attention than other forms of Ebola. The data collected through clinical trials could help guide future responses and provide the foundation for approved vaccines and treatments.
As health workers continue to battle the outbreak, WHO says scientific evidence must remain at the centre of decision making. The agency believes that carefully conducted trials offer the best path toward finding effective medical tools while protecting patients and strengthening the global response to Ebola.