Ebola vaccine trial in DR Congo begins in Bunia as Kenya reports second death

The Ebola vaccine trial in DR Congo started on Friday 23 October 2026, when the first participants were vaccinated in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province in the country’s northeast. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the start in a post on X, saying the first shots had been given under a study called Tumaini, which means “hope” in Swahili, according to NewsCentral TV. Bunia sits at the epicentre of the outbreak, the Barbados Gazette reported.

On the same day, Kenya’s health ministry reported a second Ebola death late on Friday. The patient was a 65-year-old woman who had developed symptoms during quarantine and was a close relative of the Kenyan man who died earlier this month, Reuters reported. Two stories, one virus. One is about a vaccine that might work. The other is about whether containment holds while researchers wait for an answer.

Information verified through 24 October 2026.

What the Ebola vaccine trial in DR Congo is testing

There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo species behind this epidemic. That gap is the whole reason for Tumaini.

Ervebo goes in first. The vaccine is licensed against the Zaire strain, the more common form of Ebola, and the trial will put it through full-scale human testing to see if it offers any Ervebo cross-protection against Bundibugyo strain at all. Tedros put it plainly: “This trial will help us understand whether any of the vaccine candidates designed for Bundibugyo virus work,” quoted by the Barbados Gazette.

Tumaini is built as a single framework that can assess safety, efficacy and immunogenicity for several vaccines at once, rather than running separate trials one after another, NewsCentral TV reported. It uses ring vaccination — immunising contacts of confirmed cases and other people judged to be at high risk, the Barbados Gazette reported.

Two Bundibugyo-specific candidates are expected to join shortly. One is a ChAdOx1 adenoviral vector vaccine from the University of Oxford. The other is an mRNA candidate from the US group Moderna. Both are funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and are still in earlier-stage trials, according to NewsCentral TV.

The trial will include pregnant women and children aged 12 and older. Those groups are often left out of clinical studies, which means evidence for them usually arrives late, if it arrives at all. WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu said the study was set up to generate rigorous evidence on whether the vaccines can protect people at risk, the Barbados Gazette reported.

MedicalBrief, reporting earlier WHO briefings, noted the same logic. Anthony Scott, chair of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation, said hints that Ervebo might protect against Bundibugyo were no match for evidence from standardised trials, MedicalBrief reported.

Kenya Ebola second death: what officials say

Kenya’s first case was a man who travelled from Congo to Nairobi and died at a Nairobi hospital on 5 October, Reuters reported. The woman who died on Friday evening was a direct contact of that index patient, the ministry said.

The numbers are small and, for now, contained. Kenyan authorities have traced 135 contacts, all placed in quarantine, with nine cases confirmed, Reuters reported. “This loss brings the number of deaths to two among the nine confirmed cases. The remaining seven patients continue to receive care in the two isolation facilities,” the ministry said, adding there was no evidence of community spread in the country, quoted by Reuters.

That last point matters. Cases among quarantined contacts are a different problem from cases appearing with no known link. The first suggests tracing is catching people. The second would suggest it isn’t.

Wider signals are less calm. Late on Monday, the US State Department advised Americans to reconsider travel to Kenya and raised its travel advisory level because of health risks, Reuters reported. On Tuesday, Nigeria became the fourth country to report a case, and officials there were still working out how a patient who had not travelled to DR Congo contracted the disease, Reuters reported.

The scale behind both stories

DR Congo declared its 17th outbreak in May. It is now the DR Congo worst Ebola outbreak on record, with more than 9,700 cases and deaths exceeding 4,600, NewsCentral TV reported. Reuters gives a similar picture for Congo: nearly 10,000 people infected and more than 4,600 killed, Reuters reported.

The outbreak has now been reported in four countries across eastern, central and western Africa. That gives it the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak on the continent to date, Reuters reported. WHO responded by triggering a public health emergency of international concern, its second-highest alert level, the Barbados Gazette reported.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, and in severe cases internal and external bleeding. Only people with symptoms can transmit the virus, Reuters reported.

Analysis: Tumaini will not end this outbreak on its own. Trials take time, and ring vaccination only helps if contacts are found fast. What the launch changes is the evidence base. Until now, responders have had a licensed vaccine for the wrong strain and hope for the right one. If Ervebo shows even partial protection, policy can shift quickly. If it doesn’t, the Oxford and Moderna candidates stop being a backup plan and become the plan — with months still to run.

Sources

1. Reuters — “Kenya reports second death from Ebola” — 23 October 2026 — https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/kenya-reports-second-death-ebola-2026-10-23/
2. NewsCentral TV — “WHO Begins Ebola Vaccine Trial in DR Congo” — 24 October 2026 — https://newscentraltv.com/who-begins-ebola-vaccine-trial-in-dr-congo/
3. MedicalBrief — “DRC Ebola jab trial starts soon, Kenya records second death” — 21 October 2026 — https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/drc-ebola-jab-trial-starts-soon-kenya-records-second-death/
4. Barbados Gazette (reporting Al Jazeera) — “WHO announces start of Ebola vaccine clinical trial in DR Congo” — October 2026 — https://barbadosgazette.com/who-announces-start-of-ebola-vaccine-clinical-trial-in-dr-congo/