Uganda received the first batch of Ebola trial vaccines, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said. The shipment of Ebola vaccines arrived in Uganda on Thursday.
According to the Ministry officials, this is the batch of one of the three candidate vaccines against the Sudan Ebola virus. The vaccine will be evaluated in a trial called Tokomeza Ebola, according to WHO officials.
“This is a historic day for the country and the world of scientific health research. For the first time, vaccines for clinical trials are produced in less than 90 days after the start of an Ebola outbreak. This is a remarkable effort,” said Charles Njuguma WHO Uganda incident manager.
“The 1,200 doses that the country is receiving today are being or have been manufactured by the Sabin vaccine Institute in the United States,” Charles Njuguna added.
Charles Njuguna added that the vaccines will be administered to those at the greatest risk meaning those that are immediate contacts of a person who has been diagnosed with the Sudan virus disease”.
According to Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s Health minister, Uganda has not registered any new confirmed Ebola cases in the last nine days.
“It is nine days today that we have no new cases of Ebola, but that does not mean we are out of the outbreak. Uganda encourages scientists to continue research to support the provision of appropriate drugs and vaccines to prevent future outbreaks,” Dr Acens said while receiving the trial vaccines.
Since the outbreak was declared on September 20, 56 people have died. According to statistics compiled by Uganda’s Ministry of Health, 142 cases were confirmed.
86 people recovered from the hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.
