By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
The World Health Organisation spokesperson in Freetown has disclosed that the Centre for Disease Control will soon provide vaccines to possibly prevent nurses and others leading the Ebola fight from contracting the virus.
Speaking to Politico, Winnie Romeril, revealed that WHO was working with the centre in the United States together with Johnson and Johnson Company in the UK to fast-track researches that would expedite the provision of vaccines to help prevent new transmission of the Ebola virus.
She said they were yet to however decide on the type of vaccine they would be using in Sierra Leone, adding that it would either be “ChAD3 vaccine developed by Glasko Smith Kline or VSV vaccine developed by Merck”.
The WHO spokesperson also revealed that the London School of Tropical Medicine and Crucell were also working with Johnson & Johnson to provide the “ChAD26-MVA Vaccine” by April this year, after a study with a timeline under review.
She explained that none of the studies that would lead to the provision of the vaccines was by WHO but by governments, pharmaceutical companies, universities and other credible technical agencies around the world. Rather, she added, they were only fast tracking the processes to ensure that they were delivered in months, noting that it usually took years to develop a vaccine.
“This is not a treatment. The vaccine is something that will hopefully prevent someone from contracting Ebola and we don’t know if it is going to work…the only way we will know is by giving it to people that are most at risk and if they don’t get sick that will be an evidence to show that the vaccines really work,” Romeril said.
She went on to explain that WHO was in dialogue with the ministry of health to provide technical advice for the Sierra Leone government to decide if the vaccines were to be used to prevent frontline workers in the country.
“WHO is a neutral technical agency that provides technical assistance guidance to ensure selection, data gathering and trial processes are done ethically and professionally,” the UN official observed.
Meanwhile, towards the end of last year, the organisation promised to start treating Ebola patients with Serum made from the blood of Ebola survivors but that didn’t materialise.
All efforts to get a reaction from Sierra Leone’s health ministry proved futile.
© Politico 21/01/15
