The Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday introduced an Ebola vaccination programme to help curb the spread of the deadly disease.
This an experimental vaccine which apparently proved to be effective during the Ebola West Africa epidemic back in 2014-2016. The Ebola death toll in DRC is slowly increasing each day. At least 26 people have died and 45 cases of the outbreak been reported since it began in DR Congo earlier this month. A vaccination program has been launched in DRC’s port city, Mbandaka, where four cases of the viral disease have been confirmed.
According to Reuters:
” The Use of the VSV-EBOV shot – an experimental vaccine developed by Merck – marks a “paradigm shift” in how to fight Ebola, said the World Health Organization’s head of emergency response.
The shot is designed for use in so-called ring vaccination plans. When a new Ebola case is diagnosed, all people who might have been in recent contact with the patient are traced and vaccinated to keep the disease from spreading.”