The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has finalised preparation to apply the Ervebo vaccine to help contain the “rapidly escalating” Ebola outbreak in the country.
Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, over the weekend said the lack of licensed vaccines or targeted medical countermeasures against the rare Bundibugyo strain is driving the disease’s rapid transmission across parts of the DRC.
He said that the Central African country has already submitted a request for 100,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine to the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision.
According to the latest Africa CDC data, the country has recorded a total of 4,449 confirmed cases and 2,061 deaths, representing a case fatality rate of about 46.3 percent.
The Ervebo vaccine is a World Health Organization (WHO) pre-qualified single-dose vaccine for the disease caused by the Zaire Ebola virus strain and has an extensive safety and deployment record.
Kaseya stressed that the deployment of this vaccine is a strategic approach to reduce severe illness and deaths. He said this approach will simultaneously generate the rigorous evidence needed to guide the wider response.
Warning that the current emergency “risks becoming the deadliest the country has faced and we cannot allow that trajectory to continue,” Kaseya said.
The expanded use of the Ervebo vaccine is planned to begin with eligible contacts, healthcare responders, community health workers, burial teams, religious and village leaders, and people in high-transmission hotspots with repeated occupational exposure, it was noted.
The launch of the expanded use of the licensed Ervebo vaccine is one of the immediate measures agreed upon during a high-level crisis meeting convened by DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, alongside the Africa CDC chief and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, last week in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC.
MG/as/APA