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Congo starts Ervebo vaccinations for health workers

August 28, 2026

Congo has begun giving Ervebo shots to front-line health workers in Kisangani as an Ebola outbreak across six eastern provinces reaches 5,713 cases and 2,744 deaths.

AP News reports that Health Minister Roger Kamba opened the campaign in Kisangani, capital of Tshopo, one of six affected provinces, saying “We have decided to use the Ervebo vaccine to protect first those who are on the front line,” and that the World Health Organization approved 70,000 doses of Ervebo for use in Congo last week. PBS carries the same launch and lists the six provinces as Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele. Al Jazeera's coverage describes the same start of vaccination for front-line healthcare workers. The Guardian and the World Health Organization line up behind the regulatory backdrop: the Emergency Committee on the Bundibugyo virus epidemic met a second time on 18 August 2026 under the International Health Regulations (2005), and the Director-General issued updated temporary recommendations covering surveillance, case detection, infection prevention, clinical care, community engagement and, newly, social measures, mass gatherings and domestic mobility.

The accounts split on how the 70,000 doses are allocated. One puts about 50,000 with frontline and health workers and reserves another 20,000 for a clinical trial testing protection against Bundibugyo Ebola; a competing account does not carry that division. The gap matters because it decides how much of the campaign is protection and how much is research, and the answer changes what the numbers arriving in the coming weeks will mean. Africa CDC's Placide Mbala Kingebeni tells AP News that data gathered during the campaign will measure how well the vaccine works, which is consistent with either reading.

The severity is not in dispute. AP News, PBS and the World Health Organization agree the outbreak remains out of control and is on track to pass the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. AP News and PBS both attribute the spread to insecurity, displacement, a health workers' strike and heavy population movement. Settled: the campaign has begun, Ervebo is being used under compassionate use, the toll stands at 5,713 cases and 2,744 deaths on government figures. Unsettled: the dose allocation, and the vaccine's effect against this virus.

Still developing

The division of the 70,000 approved doses between front-line protection and the clinical trial differs across the accounts. Whether Ervebo prevents illness in people infected with Bundibugyo Ebola is under study, and the World Health Organization notes no approved vaccines or therapeutics against the virus while trials continue.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 74% · Contested 3% · Developing 23%

Sources