Health
No vaccine for current Ebola strain, says Africa CDC
Janet Ogundepo
The Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Jean Kaseya, has blamed the lack of interest among some international partners for the unavailability of vaccines for the latest Ebola outbreak, warning that African countries must unite to contain the disease.
Kaseya said African countries, including Nigeria, were mobilising resources and working with international partners to strengthen the response, urging leaders to avoid politicising the outbreak or blaming one another.
He said the continent needed greater investment in vaccine development, local manufacturing, diagnostics and medicines to prevent Africa from being left behind in future outbreaks.
The Africa CDC chief spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday.
Explaining the vaccine shortage, Kaseya said the current outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which he said vaccine development had not received sufficient attention from some partners.
He noted that the Bundibugyo strain had caused only three outbreaks, compared with more than 16 outbreaks involving the Zaire strain.
He noted that the first Bundibugyo outbreak occurred in Uganda 19 years ago, followed by another in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while the current outbreak is the third.
“If this outbreak were in Western countries, a vaccine would already be available,” he said, arguing that some partners had treated the outbreak as an African problem and were not sufficiently interested in addressing it.
Kaseya said the Africa CDC had initiated clinical trials of new vaccines, including work with an African manufacturer in Egypt to develop a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain.
He added that the agency was working with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda to facilitate clinical trials and compassionate use of the Zaire-strain vaccine, Ervebo.
He said the response was also aimed at strengthening Africa’s capacity to manufacture vaccines, improving coordination among partners and increasing domestic funding for public health emergencies.
Kaseya disclosed that 28 African countries had provided funding to support the response, describing the development as a sign of growing African ownership of outbreak control.
On Nigeria’s response, he said the Africa CDC was supporting the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, which he described as doing a good job.
He said about 12 colleagues had arrived in Addis Ababa and that the agency had mobilised test kits and other forms of support, while awaiting Nigeria’s national response plan to provide additional resources.
Kaseya also called on African leaders to work together to stop the outbreak, warning that countries across the continent and beyond could be at risk.
“We cannot play politics with this outbreak. We need to come together. We cannot point fingers. We need to come together,” he said.
He urged international partners to support efforts to contain the outbreak in Africa, rather than allow cases to spread to other continents.
On efforts to establish the source of the outbreak in Nigeria, Kaseya said authorities were seeking information from a woman who had travelled to Uganda before returning to Abuja with her husband on October 3.
He said the woman’s cooperation was important to determine whether she had travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, moved outside Kampala or had contact with anyone arriving from the country.
Kaseya said the information would help Nigerian and Ugandan authorities strengthen their investigations and response, while preventing tensions between African countries.
He said he was in contact with the relevant authorities in Nigeria, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stressing that cooperation was essential to controlling the outbreak.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that Nigeria has confirmed one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, becoming the fifth country to detect the virus since the outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 15, 2026.
The infection was confirmed by laboratory tests on October 20. According to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the patient is a woman with a recent travel history to Uganda. Her symptoms began on October 7, four days after her arrival in Nigeria, and she sought treatment at a private health facility in Abuja on October 11. She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care.
The ministry said investigations were ongoing to establish the likely source of infection and reconstruct the patient’s full travel and exposure history. So far, 44 contacts have been identified and are being monitored, while infection prevention and control measures have been strengthened at the private health facility where she sought care.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has activated its incident management system to coordinate the response. According to reports from the agency, the woman was initially treated for malaria-like symptoms, but her condition failed to improve.
Her travel history subsequently raised suspicion among attending doctors, prompting further investigations and laboratory testing.
The World Health Organisation describes Bundibugyo virus disease as a severe and often fatal form of Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus.
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