SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This week marked a big step toward fighting the Ebola outbreak in Africa. The first dose of an Ebola vaccine was administered in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of an effort to target the Bundibugyo species of Ebola. That variant is driving the current outbreak, and so far, it's infected more than 10,000 people, but there is no approved vaccine or treatment for it.
Dr. Meg Doherty is an infectious disease specialist who is in the DRC for the beginning of the clinical trial. She's the director of Science for Health at the World Health Organization and joins us now. Welcome.
MEG DOHERTY: Thank you very much for having me.
DETROW: All right, so two big milestones this week - the first person to receive a vaccine at a clinical trial and the current outbreak surpassed 10,000 infections. Very different kinds of milestones, and I'm wondering what the mood is like.
DOHERTY: Well, I think it's a mixed mood, for sure. I mean, we're five months into what is now probably going to be the second largest or on the way to being one of the largest Ebola outbreaks that we've had. But on the other hand, there's a moment of, I guess, hope in the fact that collectively, with the leadership of the Ministry of Health of DRC and their scientists, they've started what's called the Tumaini trial, which is a vaccine trial that is aiming to identify one, two or three vaccines that could actually stop onward infection of Ebola.
DETROW: And that speed is needed because this has been a really challenging outbreak. It's notable for the speed it spread. I mentioned 10,000 people infected. What are some of the reasons why this variant has been so devastating and so difficult to get under control?
DOHERTY: Well, I think there's multiple reasons. First, you mentioned earlier, there is no specific vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus. There is a vaccine for something called the Ebola Zaire virus. And so therefore, we just don't have the one tool that's so important in reducing outbreaks. But the other is that there hasn't been medicines available or therapeutics or treatments. And so we're really left with using the standard of care of ensuring that people have as much supportive care and using the usual aspects in an outbreak of identifying cases, following up cases and making sure that they're followed for either development of disease or resolution. The other complexity is, this is an enormous population. It's a very mobile population. And being able to do all those other public health interventions is difficult in this setting.
DETROW: What specifically are you and others involved in this clinical trial going to be looking for over the coming weeks and months?
DOHERTY: Over the next few weeks and months, we're going to see, No. 1, if we can enroll many more people right now. There's community engagement that's ongoing. And what's really exciting is that members of the community are already walking in, asking for the vaccine. So I think there's already an anticipation that this is needed and that there's going to be willingness and acceptance of being part of a vaccine trial but also getting engaged in potentially having vaccines available if and when good results come forward from this vaccine trial.
DETROW: Is there a best-case timeline that you and other health officials have talked about or thought about in terms of, if all goes well, we can have a widespread vaccine by X date?
DOHERTY: It's hard to give an X date, but I would say we're looking forward to seeing interim results, we hope, sometime in the beginning of 2027, in the new year. And then if that looks promising, afterwards we'll be able to start rolling out vaccines, we would hope, you know, in the next six months or so.
DETROW: I'm curious. You've recently arrived back in the DRC at this critical moment. Like we said at the beginning of the conversation, this vaccine clinical trial has just begun. But also,10,000 people have now been infected, a grim milestone. What has stuck in your mind in recent days in this week? What's a moment or two that can tell us - can help us understand this story from your perspective?
DOHERTY: What's been impressive to me is just really how immense this response is under the leadership of the government. There are posters in the airports, along the roads. There are so many partners who are responding. So the scale of the response has been very impressive to me. But it's also quite heartbreaking to think that we have more than 50 people a day dying from Bundibugyo virus disease. And so in that case, in that setting, it's really quite important for us to be thinking about what's - how can we address the thousands of healthcare workers and people who - and communities who are being affected by this daily, and how we can help support - as members of the international community, WHO and others - to get the outbreak under control.
DETROW: That is Dr. Meg Doherty, director of Science for Health at the World Health Organization. Thank you so much for talking to us, and good luck with this trial.
DOHERTY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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