The world's first Ebola vaccine was approved by European drugs regulators on Friday in a move hailed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a "triumph for public health" that would save many lives.

The vaccine, developed by U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co, is also under a fast-track reviewing process in the United States and is already being used under emergency guidelines in the fight against a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The vaccine, brand-named Ervebo, is likely to get a full marketing license from the European Commission within a few weeks.

"This vaccine has already saved many lives in the current Ebola outbreak, and the decision by European regulator will help it to eventually save many more," the WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

Merck says right now its first priority is getting Ervebo's manufacturing site in Germany approved so that it can begin producing licensed supplies of the vaccine.

There are currently no licensed treatments for the deadly infection, but scientists said in August they were a step closer to being able to cure it after two experimental drugs showed survival rates of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.

The Congo Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people since the middle of last year. It is the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, after a 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa that killed more than 11,300.