UK starts Ebola vaccine trial, DRC treatment trial begins

A new vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has received regulatory approval to begin human trials in the United Kingdom, as a separate, groundbreaking treatment trial for infected patients is already underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The developments mark a rapid, dual-pronged scientific response to an outbreak that has killed 625 people and infected 1,792 others as of July 9, 2026.

Scientists at the University of Oxford developed the experimental vaccine in just eight weeks using the same viral vector technology employed in the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has given permission for a Phase I trial involving 50 healthy adults aged 18 to 55, with the first doses expected to be administered within weeks. The Serum Institute of India has already manufactured and stockpiled approximately 620,000 doses. Researchers will also work with partners in Uganda to prepare for potential trials in Africa.

Concurrently, a major clinical trial testing two experimental treatments for infected patients has begun in the Ituri region of the DRC. The trial, launched just six weeks after the World Health...