Ebola vaccine will be available in early 2015.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that a batch of experimental Ebola vaccine could be available for use in West Africa in January 2015.
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| WHO Director-General Margaret Chan at a meeting in Tunisia - Photo: Reuters |
Reuters quoted WHO assistant director Dr. Marie Paule Kieny as saying that the Ebola vaccine would first be administered to approximately 20,000 healthcare workers and residents living and working in affected areas of West Africa.
Ms. Kieny stated that Ebola vaccines are undergoing clinical trials in Europe, the United States, and Africa.
"If these vaccines are safe, they will be delivered to West Africa in January 2015 with tens of thousands of doses," Kieny affirmed, but did not specify when the Ebola vaccine could be widely used.
On the same day, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the organization would review the “transparency” of its handling of the outbreak after reports suggested the WHO had failed to contain the Ebola virus.
The WHO argues that most people involved in the fight against Ebola failed to recognize the factors that propelled the epidemic to record-high levels. The report also suggests that many WHO regional leaders were incompetent, bureaucratic, and lacked accurate information.
"I am committed to ensuring that WHO will be completely transparent and accountable on this matter," Margaret Chan emphasized.
More than 9,000 people have been infected with Ebola in West Africa, and over half of them have died. The hardest-hit countries are Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. The WHO also recently declared Nigeria and Senegal free of Ebola a few days ago.
According to AloBacsi.com
