Health Officials Discuss Sending Experimental Ebola Vaccine To Congo

A World Health Organization spokesman on Sunday confirmed two Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, bringing the outbreak’s total to 19 suspected and confirmed cases, including three deaths. Health agencies are now in preliminary discussions about sending an experimental vaccine to the outbreak area. The vaccine, developed in the wake of the 2014 West Africa outbreak, was deemed highly effective last year following a large-scale trial of the vaccine in Guinea in 2015. It has not yet been dispatched to the DRC, but health agencies are considering sending the 300,000 available vaccine doses. (A public-private partnership between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Merck stockpiled the vaccine for just such a situation.)  The Ebola cases have occurred in a largely inaccessible rural area in the country’s northeast. “On the one hand, it’s lucky because the illness probably can’t spread on a wide scale. But on the other hand, it’s far from medical access,” WHO communications officer Eugène Karambi told HuffPost last week. Geographical distribution of #Ebola Virus Disease cases in #DRC, 22 April - 13 May 2017. https://t.co/0W0QaI3plz pic.twitter.com/EMIuNzZX3q— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) May 15, 2017 The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst in history, lasted two years and killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.   In comparison, an unre...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news