Uganda Thursday received 1200 doses of vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) which will be used in the Tokomeza Ebola vaccine trial.
This is first batch of one of the three candidate vaccines against the Sudan Ebolavirus. The doses received by the Ministry of Health will be evaluated in a clinical trial called Tokomeza Ebola.
According to Dr Charles Njuguna the Incident Manager, WHO Uganda, this is the first time in history that trial vaccines have been procured in less than three months since the outbreak.
“This is a historic day for the country and the world of scientific health research. For the 1st time, vaccines for clinical trials are produced in less than 90 days after the start of an Ebola Outbreak. This is a remarkable effort,” Njuguna stated.
On Uganda’s side, Jane Ruth Aceng the health minister commended WHO for their tremendous role in ensuring Ebola is suppressed in the country. She said the organization since the start of the outbreak has been very supportive.
“Uganda encourages scientists to continue research to support the provision of appropriate drugs and vaccines to prevent future outbreaks,” Aceng said.
She mentioned it is nine days since the country has registered any new Ebola cases but said it does not imply Uganda is out of the outbreak.
Aceng said as per WHO guidelines, a country must observe 42 days without any cases before it is declared safe.
“We must follow international guidelines that require we declare a country free of Ebola after 42 days from our last discharged patient. Our count down is on from 30th November,” she added.
Meanwhile, since the first outbreak, Uganda has recorded 142 confirmed cases of the virus. Of these, 56 have died while 86 have recovered from it.