First patients enrolled in record-breaking Ebola treatment trial in DR Congo

A new vaccine to tackle Ebola will now be tested on people after the UK regulator gave permission for trials to take place.

The 38-year-old community nurse is the only public-health worker in his district of more than 40,000 people, where an outbreak of Ebola has been spreading.

There is no approved drug to help the medical teams scrabbling to save lives in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – but there are hopes that could change within months as the first patients are enrolled in a treatment trial.

The University of Oxford is set to begin trials for a new Ebola vaccine, which has been rapidly developed to combat the Bundibugyo strain currently devastating the Democratic Republic of Congo.