Trials of new Ebola vaccine set to begin

**Oliver Conway** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 Hours GMT on Monday, the 13th of July. Britain approves trials for a new vaccine to tackle the worsening Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Trump says the US will reinstate its naval blockade of Iran, and Ukrainian attacks cause trouble for drivers in Russia.
Also, in this podcast…

**Jane Bradley** (0:29)
You've got this network of spies operating under Japan's nose and Japanese manufacturers' parts repeatedly turning up on the battlefield in Ukraine.

**Oliver Conway** (0:38)
The New York Times says Russia is taking advantage of weak espionage laws in Japan.
In May, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern.
Now the Congolese authorities say it has spread to two new provinces. But efforts are underway to fight back. Regulators in the UK have approved trials of a new vaccine that's been in development since that WHO declaration. It's one of four aimed at countering the Bundibugyo species of the virus. But the first to enter human trials. Alex Sampson is one of the researchers at Oxford University.

**Alex Sampson** (1:20)
The way we've been able to make this vaccine so quickly, there's a few reasons. One of these is that we're using the same vaccine technology that we used to make the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID vaccine. We've also got a lot of experience in the team, both using that platform and working on vaccines against different Ebola viruses. And so because of that combined experience, we were able to respond really, really quickly.

**Oliver Conway** (1:37)
I got the details from our medical editor, Fergus Walsh.

**Fergus Walsh** (1:41)
They're using the same vaccine technology that was used during COVID. Hundreds of millions of people had the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID vaccine. It starts with a disabled common cold virus into which you put a scrap of genetic material. In COVID, it was the spike protein. And with this, it's a tiny, the only surface protein on the Bundibujo Ebola species of virus. And goes into the body inside this virus and is delivered to cells, prompts them to start making this scrap of genetic material. That prompts an immune response to produce antibodies and T cells. So that hopefully, should the person then come into contact with Ebola at some time in the future, they'll be protected. Now, obviously, these volunteers won't be given Ebola. It won't be a challenge trial.
But their safety and the immune response that is produced will be will be monitored to see what level of immune response it produces.

**Oliver Conway** (2:46)
When will they know how effective it is? And if it is effective, when could it be actually seen in use in places like Congo?

**Fergus Walsh** (2:54)
Within a few months, I mean, this trial, they'll actually monitor them for a year. There'll be another small trial which will start in Africa probably a few weeks later. I think the first doses of this vaccine, and they're looking for 50 healthy volunteers in Oxford aged 18 to 55
There'll be a similar small trial in Africa which will start a couple of weeks later. Then there'll have to be a larger trial in situ in Africa which will be in the affected areas. But I think we're talking about in months and already the Serum Institute in India, which worked with the Oxford team during COVID, they have speculatively produced more than 600,000 doses of this prototype vaccine. They've got them stored ready for potential use. They've done everything consecutively here so that what used to take months and years, the delays between one trial and another, they all happen pretty much overlapped so that they're ready to go. Obviously, there's a massive need for this. Latest figures today, more than 700 deaths. This Bundibujo strain kills about one in three of those infected.

**Oliver Conway** (4:10)
If it is rolled out, of course, it will be hard to get it to everyone because there is a lot of skepticism and also the conditions are difficult in Congo.

**Fergus Walsh** (4:19)
Yeah, it's a fragile area affected by war. They've got limited health care facilities, a lot of movement, displacement of populations and a lot of distrust of health care and officialdom.
So, it's going to be tricky but government workers and agencies are doing their best there to try to ensure that they bring the local communities on board here because it's absolutely vital because this is such a deadly virus.

**Oliver Conway** (4:49)
Our medical editor, Fergus Walsh.
Just before we began recording this podcast, President Trump announced that the US was reinstating its naval blockade on Iran. The dispute over who controls the Strait of Hormuz has intensified with some of the heaviest exchanges of fire since Iran and the US agreed an interim peace deal last month. In his social media post, President Trump declared the Strait was open to other countries safeguarded by the US. But there would be a charge of 20 percent on all cargo shipped, effective immediately. Earlier, Iran carried out a barrage of attacks against US military assets in the Middle East after the Americans targeted Iran overnight. I got more details from our correspondent in Jerusalem, Barbara Platt-Asher.