Ebola Vaccination Underway in Southern Congo as Officials Race to Contain Outbreak
WHO says doses have been given to exposed contacts and frontline workers in Kasai amid limited access and funding constraints
LAGOS, Nigeria — Vaccination against Ebola has begun in southern Kasai province for people exposed to the virus and for frontline health workers, the World Health Organization said Sunday.
The campaign targets the locality of Bulape, where health authorities announced an outbreak earlier this month. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that at least 16 people have died and 68 other suspected cases have been identified in the affected area.
Only an initial 400 doses of the Ervebo vaccine were dispatched to the area, the WHO said, with additional shipments to follow. The agency said the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision has approved roughly 45,000 more doses, which would supplement an initial national stockpile of about 2,000 doses already in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Health officials cautioned that the operation has been hampered by limited access to some communities and scarce funding, factors that could slow broader vaccination efforts and case-finding activities. The WHO said vaccination is expected to accelerate as additional doses arrive and logistical challenges are addressed.
The outbreak in Kasai is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 16th since Ebola was first identified in the country in 1976. Laboratory testing has identified the virus as the Zaire species, the most lethal of the Ebola viruses and the strain responsible for several previous outbreaks in the region.
Public health teams are conducting contact tracing, surveillance and isolation of suspected cases, while health workers in and around Bulape are being prioritized for vaccination because of their direct exposure risk. The WHO and partner agencies are coordinating with national authorities to deploy supplies and technical support.
The response comes as the DRC continues to confront complex security and humanitarian challenges. Ongoing conflict with multiple armed groups, particularly in the country’s east, has severely weakened health infrastructure and complicated past outbreak responses. Aid agencies say those same access and security problems can hinder efforts to reach people in remote or insecure parts of Kasai.
Officials emphasized that early detection, isolation of cases and vaccination of contacts and health personnel remain key to controlling the outbreak. International health bodies are monitoring the situation and preparing to scale up support depending on how the outbreak evolves and as more vaccine doses become available.