First human trial of experimental Ebola vaccine

**Will Chalk** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Will Chalk, and in the afternoon of Friday the 24th of July, these are our main stories. An experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus ravaging central Africa has been administered to a volunteer for the first time. There have been more strikes and counterstrikes across Iran and the Gulf.
Also in this podcast, India's massive youth movement, the Cockroach Janter Party, has been putting its case to government ministers.

**Swarav Das** (0:33)
We will get this to the end. We will finish what we started.

**Will Chalk** (0:41)
The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than a thousand people.
And this particular strain or species, known as the Bundibujo, has no approved vaccine. But there is hope. Several are currently being trialed. One of them, being developed by the Oxford Vaccine Group, part of Oxford University, has taken a major step forward. Today, someone had the first ever dose of the experimental vaccine.

**Aruna De Mukherjee** (1:08)
OK, so I'm just going to mention the injection here. Sometimes it can be a bit stingy when it goes in, but be over with quite quickly.

**Yola Mel** (1:13)
That's fine.

**Anne Sawi** (1:14)
And just relax as much as you possibly can.

**Yola Mel** (1:16)
Thank you.

**Will Chalk** (1:17)
The BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh, was in Oxford for the event. He began by telling me about that first volunteer who we just heard in that clip.

**Fergus Walsh** (1:26)
So the volunteer is a man called Ed Hunt. He's 37
And he volunteered after he saw news reports of what's happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In fact, he told me he'd wanted to volunteer for the COVID vaccine trials, but he wasn't able to at the time. So he's had his name down, as it were. And he's one of 50 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55, who are currently being recruited for this trial in Oxford. They'll all receive one dose of the experimental Ebola vaccine, which is against the Bundibujo species of Ebola, for which there is no vaccine at the moment.

**Will Chalk** (2:06)
If it works then, and if this is successful, how quickly can the help then get to the people who need it in the DRC?

**Fergus Walsh** (2:14)
So what will happen pretty soon is a similar, smallish trial will begin in Uganda, where people will be immunised. And those vaccine trials currently are to look primarily at safety. But if they're successful, they will then expand the trial in DR Congo, and that will be in the affected areas. Now what they're doing as well as monitoring the safety of the vaccine is they're checking for immune responses. Obviously none of the volunteers will be given Ebola. But if the jab produces a very strong immune response, which they're hoping it will, then it can be used actually to protect people who may be contacts of Ebola patients within a matter of months. And indeed, the Serum Institute, the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world, has produced 600,000 doses of this Oxford Ebola vaccine, which are waiting in the wings should the trials prove successful. So they will have the doses they need. There is already a successful and a very effective vaccine against the Zaire species of Ebola. And there's a lot of optimism that this vaccine could be effective. And it's actually one of four vaccines that have been developed against the Bony Bodo species, but it's the first one to go into human trials. And of course, it is desperately needed.

**Will Chalk** (3:41)
These vaccines can cost millions, if not tens of millions to develop. How is this all going to be paid for ultimately in the long run?

**Fergus Walsh** (3:49)
It's actually getting funding from a variety of sources, including CEPI, which is the coalition of pandemic preparedness. And there's no money going to be made here. It's not a money making venture. And indeed, the big vaccine company, Moderna, is also producing an mRNA vaccine against Ebola. mRNA vaccines first came to the fore during COVID. So, it's really not being seen about making money. There's a recognition in the global scientific community that this is a terrible outbreak, which is producing a high level of risk in Central Africa, particularly in DR Congo. And so it's about being prepared for these outbreaks.

**Will Chalk** (4:33)
Fergus Walsh there. The fighting that started up nearly two weeks ago between the US and Iran shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
The Iranians say the United States targeted commercial and military sites overnight with at least four people killed. Tehran says it carried out drone strikes on US military facilities and bases in Jordan and Bahrain.