Scientists race to test vaccines for Uganda’s Ebola outbreak

Science – A multipronged international effort has begun to pull out all the stops to launch trials of experimental Ebola vaccines in Uganda, which declared an outbreak of the deadly disease on 20 September. According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) update, Uganda has had 18 confirmed and 18 suspected cases of Ebola, including 23 deaths—an unusually high case fatality rate of 64%. A trial of a vaccine candidate that’s farthest along in development could launch before the end of next month. Proven vaccines exist for Zaire ebolavirus, which has led to a dozen outbreaks in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and was responsible for the massive Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. But those vaccines cannot control this outbreak because it’s being driven by a distant viral relative known as Sudan ebolavirus, which last caused an outbreak, also in Uganda, in 2012. The Zaire and Sudan ebolaviruses “are not variants and they’re not strains—they’re different viruses,” says Nancy Sullivan, who heads biodefense research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and has collaborated on Ebola vaccine studies. Researchers have long recognized that the world badly needs a Sudan ebolavirus vaccine: In 2016, Science published a survey of 50 leading vaccine researchers who ranked the Sudan ebolavirus vaccine as the number one R&D priority based on feasibility and need. But vaccinemakers have had little financial incentive to produce one. Even if the current trial succeeds, producing enough doses fast enough will be a challenge. Continue Reading