ED YONG JUL 3, 2017; As anti-climaxes go, it was a most welcome one. On May 11, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) notified the World Health Organization that one of its citizens had been infected with the Ebola virus. The announcement marked the start of the country’s first Ebola outbreak since the historically unprecedented West African epidemic that infected 28,000 people between 2014 and 2016, and killed more than 11,000.
But after just 42 days, it was all over.The response was so effective that even though this was the first Ebola outbreak where a potential vaccine was available, it wasn’t necessary. Around 300,000 doses had been stockpiled. None were used. “This is a candidate vaccine, which still has some steps before it is fully licensed,” says Fall. “The WHO expert committee recommended to use it in the event of an outbreak, on health workers and [people who had been in contact with cases.] But because the outbreak was rapidly controlled, we didn’t need to use it.”