WHO to lead panel to discuss vaccine options for Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda
發佈日期: 2026-05-19 21:36
TVB News
A panel of experts led by the World Health Organization will meet to discuss if there are any vaccine options to help tackle a major Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
There have been 131 suspected deaths and 500 cases linked to the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, according to the WHO.
The WHO and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both declared it a public health emergency.
The World Health Organization load medical supplies onto a plane in Kenya that is heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The supplies are to combat the recent outbreak of Ebola that seems to be spreading.
Fatima Tafida, regional supply chain lead, operational support and logistics, emergency response for WHO Africa says, "With regards to supplies, we are really ramping up supplies. So far we have delivered 18 tonnes
of emergency supplies to set up treatment centres, protect our health workers and a lot of respiratory products as well. And we are also... we are very, very pleased to have received very strong support from the UN communities"
The WHO has also sent a team of experts to the country as the outbreak is a rare type of the virus that has already killed more than one hundred people.
An American doctor in Congo is among the newly confirmed cases of the virus as WHO declares the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology, at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, "This outbreak was reported later than it should have been reported, but it's not clear why. It occurred, it began in a rural area and then it probably spread locally for quite a while before it came to the attention of any of the health authorities. Once they became aware of the outbreak, it's not clear when they might have reported it, but what is clear is that logistics are very complicated in rural parts of Africa and therefore delays often occur."
First identified in 1976, Ebola viruses have caused dozens of outbreaks across Africa. The group of viruses that cause the disease consist of six known species with three causing large outbreaks.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus first identified in 2007 in Uganda.
It is only the third documented Bundibugyo outbreak on record, and the largest.
