Geneva, Mar 29 (EFE).- The World Health Organization (WHO) is advancing in preparations to start “as soon as possible” clinical trials of vaccines and treatments for Marburg disease, after a recent outbreak in Tanzania, the first in this country.
An outbreak of this highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever from the same family as Ebola was detected in Equatorial Guinea last February, with nine confirmed cases, including five deaths.
“WHO has reviewed the evidence for four (candidate) vaccines. The trial protocols are ready and our partners are equally ready to support these trials,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
The trials are expected to be carried out in the two affected countries, added the person in charge.
Tedros commented that although Equatorial Guinea maintains the total number of cases at nine, these occurred in three provinces that are 150 kilometers apart, which would indicate that the virus may have been transmitted beyond what has been reported.
In this sense, he added that the WHO has information indicating that there are additional cases, for which reason it has asked the government to officially report them.
An expert from the WHO, Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, explained that the producers of the candidate vaccines against the Marburg virus have a few hundred doses available, which would be enough for a first phase of the planned clinical trials with the intention of vaccinating in a kind of “circle” to all contacts of confirmed cases.
This methodology of vaccinating between 20 and 50 people around each patient would make it possible to document the level of efficacy of the vaccines, Henao-Restrepo said.
