WHO Offers Experimental Ebola Vaccine To Outbreak Responders; Congo To Begin Vaccination As Early As This Weekend

The Guardian: Congo enters uncharted territory as it faces gravest Ebola challenge to date
“More than 4,000 doses of an experimental vaccine against Ebola have arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a bid to check the spread of an outbreak that is alarming experts after it travelled from a remote rural area into a million-strong city…” (Boseley, 5/18).

Mother Jones: A Promising New Ebola Vaccine Is About to Be Put to the Test
“… ‘This could be a real paradigm shift in how we respond to Ebola,’ says Dr. Peter Salama, the World Health Organization (WHO) deputy director general of emergency preparedness and response. The DRC Health Ministry says vaccination will start as early as this weekend. If the vaccine successfully halts the outbreak, it could change how the world fights Ebola, and alleviate fear of the horrific disease…” (Jula, 5/17).

Reuters: U.N. staff on way to Congo to get experimental Ebola vaccine
“World Health Organization and other United Nations staff going to the Democratic Republic of Congo as emergency responders to an Ebola outbreak are being offered an unlicensed vaccine as protection before they go. … ‘For the first time, we are offering vaccination to all international responders — and we’ll be doing that in Geneva and in Kinshasa,’ Salama said on Thursday in a telephone interview…” (Kelland, 5/17).

Additional coverage of the experimental Ebola vaccine is available from Reuters, Science, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.

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