Ebola Vaccines

Named for the site of the first outbreak in the Ebola River valley in 1977, Ebola virus and the closely related filovirus, Marburg virus, represent a family of pathogens that cause hemorrhagic fever with an associated high mortality. The potential significance of these viruses was first appreciated with the occurrence of a series of outbreaks in the 1970s. After a hiatus in the 1980s, the disease re-emerged with greater frequency in the mid-1990s, likely a consequence of zoonotic transmission from nonhuman primates (NHPs) to humans in equatorial Africa. Since its first description, more than 30 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks have occurred, primarily in Central and West Africa. Most recently, between May of 2018 and February of 2021, four distinct EVD outbreaks occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Guinea. The North Kivu, DRC outbreak, which began in August of 2018, was the largest recorded outbreak of EVD outside of West Africa (3470 cases; 2287 deaths), owing in part to an extended, almost 2-year duration of active transmission. Local and international responders were able to control the outbreak using a combination of contact tracing, isolation, vaccination, and experimental therapeutics, thus mitigating large spikes in infection and cross border transmissions as were seen in the West African outbreak in 2014. Until recently, there were no approved therapies or vaccinations for EVD. Currently, there is one vaccine and two immunotherapies against EVD that are approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A second vaccine has been approved by the European Commission (EC).