Health: WHO authorises three vaccine candidates against the Ebola virus

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has authorised clinical studies of three vaccines candidates against the Ebola virus in Uganda, where an epidemic declared on 20 September has already caused more than 54 victims.

Prior to the epidemic, 21 deaths had already been reported. The virus in Uganda is caused by the Sudan strain, for which there is currently no vaccine or authorized treatment.

« I am happy to announce that a WHO committee of external experts has evaluated three candidate Ebola vaccines and has decided to include all three in the Programmed test in Uganda, » WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been quoted as saying in a note to the media from the Geneva-based UN agency.

According to the Ethiopian official, the first doses of the vaccine developed by different laboratories will be sent to Uganda next week for « tests « .

The three candidate vaccines were respectively developed by Oxford University and the Jenner Institute in the UK and produced by the Serum Institute of India, the second by the US-based Sabin Institute with the support of the US authorities and a third by the scientific research organisation International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

The WHO Director General also announced the development of two experimental therapeutics, which have not yet been approved by the UN agency. Humanitarian agencies fear that the disease will spread throughout Uganda. The risk has been evaluated as « high » by the WHO at regional level, due to the lack of vaccines and licensed therapeutics. Experts are also concerned about massive population movements within and between neighbouring countries.

WHO does not exclude that a spread to neighbouring countries. The UN agency criticised in a recent report « weak cross border surveillance and health systems that respond to multiple emergencies ».

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday reassured tourists who want to visit the East African country that the epidemic was not a serious threat to their health.

He said the Ebola outbreak was already « under control ».