The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) over the weekend announced that it would roll out a vaccine that was used to prevent Zaire Ebola strain to counter the latest devastating ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Africa CDC said the current Bundibugyo Ebola virus has spread across five provinces of DR. Congo, leaving scientists scrambling to find a vaccine for the new variant.
The virus which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes hemorrhagic fever has killed over 1,800 people out of the nearly 4,000 confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo since authorities officially declared an outbreak on May 15.
It said it would dispense a vaccine developed for the Ebola Zaire strain, the deadliest of the known strains of the virus.
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC, said while people vaccinated against the Zaire strain experienced some symptoms, “we saw zero death among people who are vaccinated”.
“It means there is a level of protection,” he told an online news conference, saying that the vaccine would be offered to all those in eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.
“If the case fatality rate in Uganda… is 10 percent it’s mostly because they used redemsevir,” he said.
Uganda announced in mid-July that it no longer had any active cases of Ebola, the last recorded patient having been discharged from hospital after recovering.
Uganda’s health ministry said it had recorded 20 confirmed cases, and two patients had died, while all the others had recovered.
MG/as/APA