Congo Approves Anti-Ebola Vaccine to Combat Outbreak in Remote Northeast
May 29 2017 - 11:55AM
Dow Jones News
By Nicholas Bariyo
KAMPALA, Uganda--The Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday
approved the use of a new experimental Ebola vaccine, nearly three
weeks after health officials announced the latest outbreak of the
deadly virus along the country's northeastern border.
The approval was granted by Congo's health ministry, spokesman
Simba Kai said. The ministry must now decide whether to use the
vaccine, which was developed by Merck & Co.
The ministry, the World Health Organization and the medical aid
organization Doctors Without Borders were discussing plans for the
vaccine, Mr. Kai said. A spokeswoman for Merck said the company
"stands ready to ship vaccine, if and when" Congo decides to use
it.
There have been only two confirmed cases of Ebola in the latest
flare-up, and at least three more who likely had it. It isn't clear
if the virus is still spreading. While some 52 cases have been
registered, most have been designated as potential cases and are
under investigation.
Experts from the WHO say the delays in Congo's approval of the
vaccine have been an impediment in efforts to contain the latest
eruption of the disease, which was confirmed May 12.
The current outbreak in Congo is the first since 2014-16, when
at least 28,600 people were infected in West Africa, including
11,310 who died--by far the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
Reports in the aftermath of that epidemic called for major
overhauls in global health financing and in the WHO, which took on
most of the blame for a delayed response that allowed the disease
to spiral out of control. Since then, it has established new
guidelines and procedures for responding to reports of telltale
symptoms of the disease.
Monday's announcement that the vaccine had been approved for use
in Congo came after Congolese experts finished a review of the
protocol for using the vaccine, Mr. Kai said.
Merck announced earlier this month that it was ready to release
the vaccine but because the serum isn't yet licensed, it can only
be administered under a clinical study, which must be approved by
government. The company has agreed with the international vaccine
alliance GAVI to ship doses of the vaccine to the location of the
latest outbreak.
The development of an Ebola vaccine is a significant
breakthrough, especially for Congo, which has been afflicted by
more outbreaks of the disease than any other nation in the world.
The latest isn't far from the Ebola River, after which the virus
was named in 1976.
But Congo is sub-Saharan Africa's most sprawling country, and
any vaccination campaign will be complicated by the remoteness of
the current outbreak, centered in Likati, about 800 miles northeast
of the capital Kinshasa.
There are no road or rail links between Likati and Kisangani,
the nearest city. Health officials are relying on motorbikes to
reach the forested region, near Congo's border with the Central
African Republic.
To be effective, the anti-Ebola vaccine must be stored in
special containers at a temperature of minus 80 degrees Celsius.
Equipment to safely ship and store the vaccine has arrived in Congo
from Guinea, where trials of the vaccine during the large outbreak
in 2015 were effective, said the WHO spokesman in Congo, Eugene
Kabambi.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 29, 2017 12:40 ET (16:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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