Ebola vaccination trial in DR Congo in full force
At the very end of 2019, an Ebola vaccination trial focusing on health care providers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was officially kick-started with the first participant enrollment.
Prof. Van Damme, head of the Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, and Prof. Van geertruyden, head of Global Health Institute, joined hands in 2018 with Université de Kinshasa (UNIKIN) to implement a clinical trial to gather safety and immunogenicity data in Health Care Providers in an area unaffected by the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Over the years, DR Congo has experienced a number of Ebola outbreaks, including the most recent (ongoing) one that started in August 2018 in northeastern North Kivu province. Vaccination of Health Care Providers has significant potential of reducing the scale and duration of outbreaks.
On December 18th 2019, the first participant screening and vaccination on the trial site in Boende was a fact. To date, mid February 2020, we have reached full recruitment of the study population, a total number of approximately 700 Health Care Providers. Another crucial milestone was realized.
The EBOVAC3 project fits in a large consortium of partners and is co-financed by the European Union (“EBOVAC3 grant”, EU-IMI). Its ultimate goal to further document this candidate Ebola vaccine regimen, which has been developed by Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V.