An experimental vaccine targeting the deadly strain of Ebola now surging through central Africa could be developed in just 100 days in preparation for a global roll out, according to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an organization founded and funded by Bill Gates.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) funds the development of new vaccines and is looking at potential candidates for the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no current known vaccine.
Jane Halton, CEPI’s board chair, revealed the Gates’ funded organization is working at “faster than warp speed” to develop an experimental vaccine for an urgent global roll out.
“I can guarantee you that we will be in a position to respond faster than we would have been five years ago,” Halton told journalists in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Will we achieve it in 100 days? Possibly, it’s a big lift. We are now into the many hundreds of cases and hundreds of deaths, but the truth of the matter is that real numbers are much bigger than that.”
The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern over the weekend.
The outbreak has resulted in 160 suspected deaths out of 670 suspected cases, of which 61 have been confirmed, according to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) health ministry data published on Thursday.
Two Ebola cases have also been confirmed in neighbouring Uganda and now the disease is spreading to rebel-held areas of the DRC, the latest figures show.
Its recent re-appearance in Africa follows previous health events involving viruses and calls for vaccines across the continent similar to events in 2024 when the Ebola-like and highly contagious Marburg virus appeared in Rwanda and left havoc in its wake.
Ebola was first discovered in 1976 in what is now DR Congo, and is thought to have spread from bats.
It is a rare, highly contagious and often fatal disease generally transmitted via bodily fluids.
Symptoms include a high temperature, extreme tiredness, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain and bleeding.