Geneva, November 16. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that three Ebola vaccine candidates will be shipped to Uganda next week to be used in clinical trials to confirm their safety and establish their efficacy.
The three vaccines have been evaluated and given the initial green light by an expert committee, which has recommended that they be part of trials, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.
Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola last September, but unlike recent ones on the African continent, this time it is not caused by the strain called ‘Zaire’, but by the strain known as ‘Sudan’.
While for the former there are vaccines that were developed as part of the Ebola epidemic that affected several West African countries between 2013 and 2016, for the strain currently circulating in Uganda – and which has already caused 141 dead – there are still no vaccine.
The three candidate vaccines will be tested in Uganda in “ring” vaccinations, a strategy that consists of vaccinating people considered at risk, especially those who live with the patient and those who had some kind of contact with the patient when they already had symptoms and up to 21 days before.
This strategy doesn’t necessarily apply to a geographic area, but to a social network of people and places.
WHO said it is not yet known how many loops will form, but the idea is that clinical trials are randomized enough to generate strong evidence on how effective vaccines are.
The organization did not specify how many vaccines of each type will be sent to Uganda. EFE extension
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