How is the Ebola vaccine studied?

Information by Mr. Yap Boun, Professor of Medicine, University of Science and Technology Mbarara, Uganda, shared in the article on The Conversation page in December 2024.

Ebola, also known as the dengue due to Ebola virus, pathogens can be transmitted from person to person. Patients with damage to the agency participating in production and blood pumping, severe bleeding. The mortality rate ranges from 25-90% in the outbreaks, depending on the circumstances and the level of response.

According to research by the Uganda Ministry of Health published in the July 2024 magazine, Ebola virus devastated West Africa in 2014, causing more than 11,000 deaths of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
This is the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in the Republic of Congo in 1976.

At that time, the world did not have this disease prevention vaccine. Many researchers rushed to conduct vaccine tests.

Directly operating the test in Guinea, Mr. Yap Boun said that about 10,000 volunteers participated in the test to prove safety and effectiveness, more than 500 scientists and health workers participated. They overcome major logistics and emotional challenges.

The group of experts must set up a complete laboratory within a week to handle thousands of test samples. The provision of vaccines requires extremely cold freezers at 80 degrees Celsius, while Guinea does not have this freezer.

The indigenous community, including many people in the health and academic industry, showed hesitation with this vaccine. They are afraid of infection with almost death, but still do not want to vaccine. This is also the problem that the team must solve.

To get started, the heads of the first gland and those who have close contact with the Ebola cases are tested for test vaccines, creating a “protection ring” around the infected person. Reputable organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), non -border doctors and many other medical research centers have persuaded people, playing a role in affirming the importance of the study.

By August 18, 2015, the test published preliminary results. Vaccine is effective over 95%, bringing the hope of “weapons” to help Ebola rooms. However, it was not until 2019 that the new vaccine was approved in the US.

The current challenge

Erveebo vaccine developed by Merck pharmaceutical company, with a one -dose of injection. The injection was used urgently during the Ebola 2018-2020 epidemic in the Republic of Congo, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda.

Ervebo is currently an important tool in the fight against Ebola, especially in controlling the outbreaks caused by Zaire strains – Ebola virus strains have the highest mortality rate.

However, the vaccine supply is still limited. The remote areas in Africa are lacking in logistics and people hesitated with the vaccine due to false information. This makes the vaccine not distributed to the people.

Besides, only vaccines have not helped to stop the epidemic due to Ebola. The reason, the virus is likely to survive in animals like bats, then spread to humans. Countries need to combine immunization, monitoring and community cohesion to control the disease.