Health ministry to start evaluation of three candidate Ebola vaccines
Currently, the total number of confirmed cases stands at 109 cases, of which 30 have succumbed to death, 34 treated and improved and 45 are under treatment in different hospitals.
The Ministry of Health plans to evaluate the efficacy of three candidate Ebola Sudan vaccines on contacts this coming week.
The ministry said the vaccines being evaluated are Oxford from the United Kingdom, Sabina and Merck from the USA.
The main objective of evaluating their efficacy is to protect primary contacts of Ebola patients within 29 days of contact.
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the health minister speaking to journalists at Uganda Media Centre said after evaluating the efficacy of the said vaccines, there is a plan to vaccinate contacts of 150 confirmed cases who are 3,000 initially.
She says despite the ministry using monoclonal antibodies and repurposed drugs from the US government, they are now to start trials of these candidate vaccines in two weeks’ time.
“There is no known treatment for Sudan Ebola Virus. Currently, there are a number of promising treatment options that the ministry of health is using under trial,” she said.
“These include the monoclonal antibodies and repurposed drugs like Remdeservir donated by the US government. However, the doses available are still very few. So far 13 patients have received these trial drugs with relatively good outcomes,” she added.
According to Aceng, the Ministry of Health has also deployed its first-ever mobile Ebola laboratory in Mubende Regional Referral Hospital.
She says as the tests are being carried out in the two districts of Mubende and Kassanda.
She added that government is as well implementing other interventions such as psychosocial counselling and treatment of confirmed cases.
“Other interventions include intense risk communication to sensitize the communities about the Ebola Virus Disease, surveillance and contact tracing of all listed contacts,” she stated.
She added: “Integration of discharged cases back into communities and an ecological surveillance has also been carried out with 189 bats and tested them to ascertain the actual cause of the ebola virus in Mubende,” she noted.
Relating to facilities being set up to curb the spread of the virus, the minister said in support of other partners they are putting up an additional treatment facility at Mulago hospital sports field.
She highlighted that despite the promising treatment modalities, the mainstay of controlling this Ebola virus is through early detection of infected individuals and immediate isolation as well as sensitizing the population about the virus.
Currently, the total number of confirmed cases stands at 109 cases, of which 30 have succumbed to death, 34 treated and improved and 45 are under treatment in different hospitals.
