A second Ebola vaccine is to be \noffered to around 50,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as \npart of a major clinical trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Johnson & Johnson \n(J&J) vaccine will be used alongside a vaccine made by Merck, which \nhas already been given to around 250,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merck’s jab has now been approved by the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 2,100 people have died in DR Congo, in the second largest Ebola outbreak on record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n WHO’s approval of Merck’s one-dose vaccine is based on it being \nsatisfied of its safety and efficacy. The European Commission has also \napproved the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
J&J’s vaccine, which requires two doses \ngiven 56 days apart, will be available to adults and children over one, \nliving in two areas of the DR Congo city of Goma, where there is no \nactive transmission of the deadly disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goma, which has a population of one million people, is on the border with Rwanda and has a major international airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prof Daniel Bausch, director of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, is one of the scientists leading the trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said there was “no contest” between the two vaccines, and both had their advantages and disadvantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merck’s, which is given to those who come into direct and indirect contact with an Ebola patient, could be best used in the middle of an outbreak – while the J&J vaccine could be used to protect people not yet exposed to Ebola. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prof Bausch said: “The J&J vaccine is not \nideally suited to an outbreak setting, primarily because it requires two\n doses to provide the optimal immunity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he said the vaccine \n“may provide longer-term immunity, and may be associated with fewer \nside-effects than a live virus vaccine, like the Merck one”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \nnumber of new cases in DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak has dropped \nsignificantly since its height in the spring, but there are still around\n 20 new infections reported every week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, which is helping to fund the J&J trial was a “critical step forward”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Previous\n trials have shown that the J&J vaccine produces an immune response,\n a good indication it will be protective against the Ebola virus.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scepticism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr\n Eteni Longondo, Minister of Public Health in DR Congo, said: “It’s \nvital that we intensify our efforts. That’s why we’re working with \ninternational partners to provide our response teams with another tool \nto fight and ultimately stop the spread of this terrible disease.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n The outbreak has been fuelled by misinformation and rumour, along with an extremely difficult security situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Around\n 200 health facilities have been attacked since the outbreak began in \nAugust 2018, so introducing a new vaccine into already sceptical \ncommunities is a major task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Immunisation teams from the medical charity M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) will administer the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John\n Johnson, MSF’s project lead on Ebola vaccination, said: “Using two \ndifferent vaccines in nearby areas might result in misconceptions, which\n means that community engagement will be crucial before and during the \ndeployment of the second investigational vaccine.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A second Ebola vaccine is to be offered to around 50,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of a major clinical trial. The Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine will be used alongside a vaccine made by Merck, which has already been given to around 250,000 people. Merck’s jab has now been approved by the World Health Organization…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3896,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895\/revisions\/3896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}