Uganda announced on Thursday that it had received shipments of two experimental vaccines to test their effectiveness against a strain of Ebola that has caused dozens of deaths in the East African country.
Since authorities declared an Ebola outbreak on September 20, the country has recorded 142 confirmed cases and 56 deaths.
The spread of the virus has slowed in recent weeks, however, raising hopes that the outbreak could be stemmed.
This was caused by the Sudanese strain of the virus, for which there is currently no vaccine. But three experimental vaccines – one developed by the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute in Britain, another by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in the US and a third by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) – will be tested in Uganda in the coming weeks.
On December 8, Uganda had received its first shipment of doses from the Sabin Vaccine Institute.
“On Saturday December 17, we received two more vaccines, 2160 doses from Merck/IAVI and 2000 doses from University of Oxford/Jenner Institute manufactured by Serum Institute of India,” the Minister of Health said Thursday, Jane Ruth Aceng, during a press briefing.
They will be tested on confirmed Ebola patients, as well as their contact cases at two levels of proximity.
Ugandan authorities noted last month that new cases were declining and the last confirmed patient with the disease was discharged from hospital on November 30.
The absence of active Ebola cases in recent days has delayed the implementation of vaccine tests, according to international health experts working in Uganda.
But Jane Ruth Aceng said authorities had already started recruiting volunteers for the tests, adding that Uganda would attend a global expert consultation meeting on Ebola on January 12.
The government last week lifted restrictions that had been in place for two months on two contaminated areas, including a dusk-to-dawn curfew, a travel ban, and the closure of markets, bars and churches. .
According to the WHO, an epidemic is said to be stopped when there are no new cases for 42 consecutive days, which is twice the incubation period of Ebola.
Ebola spreads through bodily fluids. Common symptoms are fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhea. This disease is difficult to contain in urban areas.
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