A 37-year-old British man, Ed Hunt, has become the first person in the world to receive an experimental vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in a clinical trial run by the University of Oxford. The vaccine was developed in just eight weeks using the same viral-vector technology as the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot.
The trial, managed by the Oxford Vaccine Group, aims to recruit 50 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 and is the first clinical assessment of this particular vaccine. It targets the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which has driven an outbreak in DR Congo and Uganda since May that has produced nearly 2,500 confirmed cases and more than 1,000 deaths — the third-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in DR Congo.
Serum Institute of India has already manufactured roughly 620,000 doses to deploy if trials prove successful. Additional vaccine studies are expected to begin soon in Uganda, followed by a larger trial in DR Congo.