Ebola vaccine could take nine months as the death toll climbs and health workers face the nightmare with bare hands
Nine months. That is how long the world may have to wait for a working vaccine. In the meantime, the bodies keep piling up. 600 suspected cases. 139 suspected deaths. 51 confirmed infections in DR Congo. Two in Uganda. One of those is already dead. The Bundibugyo strain behind this outbreak has no approved drugs. No proven vaccine. Just a race against a virus that does not wait.
WHO advisor Dr Vasee Moorthy laid out the timeline bluntly. Two candidate vaccines are in development. Neither has gone through clinical trials yet. One could be ready in six to nine months if everything goes right. The other might be available for testing in two to three months but there is no animal data yet to show it even works. Uncertainty hangs over both.
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Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the true scale of the outbreak is much larger than what is being reported. Healthcare workers are among the dead. That is a flashing red warning. Local health facilities are overwhelmed. Medecins Sans Frontieres said clinics are turning patients away because there is simply no space. Protective equipment has started arriving but many staff are still working without adequate protection.
The UK has pledged up to £20 million to help contain the outbreak. The money will fund frontline workers, infection control, and disease surveillance. It is desperately needed. The first known case was a nurse who developed symptoms and died on April 24 in Bunia. Her body was sent back to Mongwalu, a gold-mining town where many cases are now concentrated. The virus had a head start before anyone knew what they were dealing with.
Bundibugyo is a rare enemy. It has only caused two previous outbreaks. Uganda in 2007. DR Congo in 2012. About a third of those infected died. It is less deadly than the Zaire strain but the rarity means fewer tools exist to fight it. There is an approved vaccine for Zaire. It may offer some cross-protection. No one knows for sure.
On the ground, fear is changing behavior. A lecturer in Bunia said she has not shaken a hand in three days. Handshakes are a daily ritual in the region. That ritual is dead for now. People believe things will get worse before they get better. The early symptoms look like malaria or typhoid. Both are common. Both delay detection.
The WHO faced criticism from the US for being slow to identify the outbreak. Tedros pushed back. He said the response in a highly complex setting was fast. Eastern DR Congo is torn apart by years of conflict. Movement is difficult. Trust is fragile. The virus exploits every crack.
The emergency committee agreed the situation is not a pandemic. The global risk remains low. But at the national and regional levels, the risk is high. Nine months is a long time to wait for a vaccine when the dead are already being buried in numbers that rise by the day.
