CITIZENS COMPASS— The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Thursday, explained why an Ebola patient at the isolation center is not recuperating as expected.
The Center spoke through the Director General of the Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya.
He spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’”.
He said that vaccines were not available for the current Ebola outbreak spreading across Africa.
Kaseya attributed the lack of vaccine to partners considering Ebola as an African issue.
“If this outbreak was in Western countries, vaccines would already be available,” Kaseya said.
reports that the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare strain of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
He said unlike the Democratic Republic of Congo’s strain which caused the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic and has a licensed vaccine, Ervebo, the Bundibugyo strain has no licensed shield.
According to him, the Africa CDC has initiated clinical trials of new vaccines, including a new Bundibugyo vaccine manufactured in Egypt.
He said the current outbreak is the most geographically widespread in history, affecting three regions of Africa, with over 9,500 infections and about 4,600 deaths in DR Congo alone.
Recall that Nigeria confirmed its first case on Tuesday in a woman who arrived from Uganda on October 3, and since then, 44 contacts have been under monitoring.
