CIDRAP- NEWS BRIEF October 23, 2026

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Quick takes: Warning over Ebola spread, price cut for malaria vaccine, polio in 6 nations​

News brief

Today at 1:03 p.m.
Chris Dall, MA
Topics

Ebola

Malaria

Polio

• The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is warning that the Ebola outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could spread throughout Africa. “We could see every region of Africa affected, and that is beginning to happen,” Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, told Semafor News. The comments come in the wake of Nigeria confirming its first Ebola patient earlier this week and Kenya its ninth. At a press conference yesterday, Africa CDC officials said the Nigerian patient, the wife of a diplomat, may have crossed paths with the first Kenyan patient at an airport in Uganda earlier this month. There have now been 9,735 confirmed cases in the outbreak, with 4,690 deaths, the vast majority of them in the DRC. Kaseya said African health, finance, and transport ministers will meet next week with officials from regional organizations to discuss national and cross-border measures.
• UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced yesterday that they have secured a deal to lower the price of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine by 40%. The groups say the deal will generate roughly $50 million in savings from 2027 through 2029 and could protect up to one million more children with the full four-dose course of the vaccine, which is now part of routine immunization programs in the 25 African countries that bear more than 70% of the global malaria burden. Full immunization reduces malaria cases by an estimated 75% when given seasonally in areas of high transmission. “This agreement is an important step towards protecting more children from malaria by expanding access to life-saving vaccines where they are needed most,” Leila Pakkala, director of UNICEF Supply Division, said in a news release.
• Six countries reported polio cases this week, according to the latest update from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Afghanistan confirmed six cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) with onsets of paralysis in August and September, bringing its WPV1 total this year to 42 cases. In Africa, the DRC reported six cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) with onsets of paralysis in August and September, bringing its cVDPV2 total for 2026 to 77 cases; Chad reported one cVDPV2 case, its ninth of the year; Togo reported one cVDPV2 case, its third of the year; Nigeria reported one circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 3 case, its 14th of the year; and South Sudan reported two circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) cases, bringing its cVDPV1 total this year to 18.