New Delhi: The Serum Institute of India (SII) has tied up with the University of Oxford and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to make a vaccine targeting the lethal Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. The collaboration aims to rapidly scale up production to combat a fast-growing Ebola outbreak in Central Africa.
The partners will deploy the highly agile ChAdOx1 viral-vector platform developed by the University of Oxford, the very same technology utilized for the global rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine.
“The moment we received word of the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, we activated our emergency response framework in partnership with the University of Oxford and CEPI. Oxford’s master viral seed will allow us to rapidly inoculate our cell bank and begin producing vaccine doses in record time… We are looking at a 20- to 30-day window,” an SII spokesperson told Mint. “This is exactly the kind of agility India’s biopharmaceutical sector brings to the world. The ChAdOx1 vector platform is well understood by our teams, and we are fully prepared to scale.”
According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has rapidly escalated to more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths. The epicentre remains concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the WHO has raised the national risk assessment to “very high.” Meanwhile, the cross-border spillover has triggered an alarm as Uganda confirmed seven laboratory-verified cases and one travel-related death in its capital city of Kampala.
Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness in humans, according to the WHO. The virus can get into the human population when people have close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. People can get infected with the virus from another person by direct contact with infected blood or body fluids.
Public health emergency
There are no licensed vaccines or standard therapies for the Bundibugyo virus. The WHO has formally declared the crisis a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, while the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has designated it a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security.
This global alert has prompted immediate, top-level government intervention in India, Mint reported earlier. Union health minister J.P. Nadda reviewed national preparedness and disease surveillance measures with senior ministry officials on Monday. On his directions, health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava convened a joint review meeting with central ministries and state health secretaries to ensure absolute vigilance.
The health minister mandated that screening arrangements at all points of entry—including major airports, seaports and land border crossings—remain extraordinarily robust. Nadda instructed the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Centre for Disease Control to place all tracking networks and specialized diagnostic testing laboratories in a constant state of readiness.
Earlier, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the ministry of health and family welfare issued a stringent travel advisory mandating that any incoming passenger from the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan with symptoms such as fever, vomiting or unexplained bleeding must immediately report to a health officer before crossing immigration.
Key transit hubs such as Delhi airport immediately implemented non-contact thermal screening, designated transit corridors and mandatory health self-declaration forms. While the central government has officially clarified that no case of Ebola has been reported in India so far, these measures are being taken as a precautionary step.
Officials emphasized that there is absolutely no cause for panic, pointing to India’s time-tested expertise in successfully neutralizing similar cross-border health threats during the 2014 African Ebola epidemic.