Human trials of an experimental Ebola vaccine have begun in the UK just 57 days after development began, making it one of the fastest vaccine responses since the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers at the University of Oxford say the rapid timeline was possible because they adapted the same ChAdOx1 platform that underpinned the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.
The vaccine was created in response to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is causing an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Uganda. Since the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 17 May, nearly 1,800 confirmed cases and at least 625 deaths have been reported. Existing Ebola vaccines target a different strain, leaving no approved vaccine against the virus responsible for the current outbreak.
