In addition to helping low-income countries procure vaccines for use in routine immunization programs, Gavi, in coordination with the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision, the WHO, UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Doctors Without Borders, supports a vaccine stockpile to prevent infection with the Ebola virus, a deadly hemorrhagic disease.
Since 2021, the stockpile, based in Switzerland, has maintained 500,000 doses that can be rapidly shipped to any country seeking to contain an outbreak; Gavi-eligible countries receive the doses free of charge. In recent years, deployment of stockpiled doses has prevented outbreaks from expanding, reducing the likelihood of high numbers of infections and deaths as seen during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Recent analysis suggests that the use of the Ebola vaccine stockpile, along with other outbreak response methods, such as contact tracing, helped reduce deaths due to Ebola infection by 35–55 percent between 2018 and 2022.
Last year, an Ebola outbreak was reported in the DRC in September 2025, with 53 confirmed cases. Through collaboration among national health authorities, regional and global health organizations, and international partners, the outbreak was declared over by early December. In the DRC, more than 47,000 Ebola vaccines were delivered to prevent patient contacts from being infected with the virus.
But maintaining a stockpile for a new and relatively expensive vaccine is costly. Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar has said that without full funding for 2026–2030, the alliance may need to reduce the number of emergency vaccines in the stockpile.
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