Ebola outbreak officially ends in Uganda as CEPI announces new vaccine candidate

The Ebola outbreak in Uganda is over now that 42 days have passed without a new confirmed case since the country’s last patient, who contracted the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was discharged from care on July 16. 

In total, the country had 20 confirmed cases and two deaths. The news comes as funding for a new candidate vaccine is announced.

“Uganda has demonstrated that with decisive action, Ebola outbreaks can be brought under control quickly,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, World Health Organization director-general. “With a focus on preparedness, increased surveillance to find potential cases in health facilities and communities, and careful management of points of entry, countries can keep people and goods moving while ensuring people stay safe, or receive care if they are sick.”

Fifteen of the 20 Ugandan cases were imported or linked to transmission chains from the DRC. Five were locally acquired among contacts and healthcare workers linked to imported cases, and since May 15, more than 800 contacts have been monitored. 

“Uganda has shown that Ebola can be stopped when leadership acts decisively, communities are trusted and public health systems reach people quickly,” said H.E. Dr Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a victory for Uganda and an important lesson for our continent. We must now protect this achievement while accelerating the response in the DRC. We will only be secure when transmission is stopped everywhere.”

The outbreak in the DRC, however, still rages on, with the Bundibugyo strain now responsible for 5,656 cases and 2,715 deaths per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

“This outbreak is spreading substantially faster than previous Ebola outbreaks and is now the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record,” the CDC said in an update yesterday. 

This outbreak surpassed 1,000 confirmed cases within 40 days of activation of response efforts, the CDC said. In comparison, the 2018 Ebola outbreak in DRC took approximately 235 days to reach more than 1,000 cases.

CEPI announces funding for new vaccine candidate 

CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, has partnered with Egypt’s Minapharm Group to advance the development of a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine candidate. Minapharm’s investigational vaccine will become the fifth Bundibugyo-specific virus vaccine candidate supported by CEPI.

The vaccine is based on a modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine platform, MVA-CR19. A similar technology underpins a licensed vaccine against smallpox and mpox, and has elicited long-term immunity in a vaccine targeting the related Ebola Zaire strain, according to CEPI.

“In just three months, cases of Bundibugyo have spread rapidly across the DRC, making this the largest and deadliest outbreak the country has ever faced,” said CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett, MD. 

“We are proud to support Minapharm’s Bundibugyo vaccine candidate: it will round out CEPI’s portfolio, give the world another shot on goal, and advance Minapharm’s proprietary MVA platform, which if successful can serve as the basis for future African-manufactured filovirus vaccines. The faster we can advance a pipeline of promising candidates, the better our chances of saving lives and bringing this epidemic under control.”