Uganda to deploy Ebola vaccine in 2 weeks, says WHO official
A World Health Organization official says experimental Ebola vaccines will be deployed in Uganda in about “two weeks.”
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Experimental Ebola vaccines will be deployed in Uganda in about "two weeks,” a World Health Organization official said Wednesday, as the East African country carried out tough preventive measures that include a lockdown in the Ebola-hit areas.
Potentially hundreds of thousands of trial vaccine doses will buttress a response effort that still must focus on tracing Ebola contacts and community engagement, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the WHO representative in Uganda, told The Associated Press.
“We are getting closer and closer to deploying vaccines,” he said. “This is a study. This is just another tool that we are going to try.”
Vaccines developed by the U.S.-based Sabin Vaccine Institute and Oxford University “are ready to be shipped” to Uganda, which is finalizing protocols for the study before the National Drug Authority issues import permits, he said.
