An experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus is 97.5% effective and saves lives in the DRC, according to the WHO

The second most serious Ebola outbreak ever recorded is currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As of April 16, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a total of 1,290 cases and 833 deaths.

But WHO also has good news at this difficult time: an experimental vaccine against Ebola administered to people at risk has an efficiency of 97.5%, which means it has probably saved thousands of lives.

The WHO recently released a preliminary analysis of data dating from May 1, 2018 to March 25, 2019, describing the effectiveness of the vaccine, called the Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV-GP. They are working on a more comprehensive report that will be published in a peer-reviewed journal at a later date.

Until now, the vaccine has been administered according to a ring vaccination strategy. This means only those most at risk of infection, such as health workers and those living in the affected villages. The vaccine has been administered to more than 90,000 people, including nearly 29,000 health and front-line workers.

Of the 93,965 people vaccinated, only 71 cases of Ebola occurred. In the meantime, 880 unvaccinated persons were infected during the same period. The vaccine also seems to work well in preventing the disease in people who are indirectly exposed, ie those who have been in contact with someone exposed to the virus. Of the 68,279 contact contacts vaccinated, only two developed the disease. This led the researchers to conclude that even though it was not perfect, the vaccine was 97.5% effective. This is great news for current and future outbreaks.

"The combination of this level of collaboration with the ring vaccination strategy and the rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine should help end the current Ebola epidemic in the DRC and control outbreaks in a similar way." as fast and efficient as possible, "write the authors.

They also note that the vaccine has a "high vaccine efficacy against death". Those who contracted the Ebola virus 10 days or more after being vaccinated all survived, but 9 out of 56 people who contracted the infection died 0 to 9 days after receiving the vaccine. However, it takes about 10 days after vaccination to be fully protected.

"The overall case fatality rate has been reduced in all vaccinees who have developed Ebola," the researchers write.

However, the Ebola virus is still increasing in some areas. The epidemic was contained in two DRC provinces: North Kivu and Ituri, in the east of the country. This means that the epidemic is at risk of crossing the border into Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. Despite this, the WHO announced Friday that it does not declare the situation as a public health emergency of international importance, because the disease is currently under control.

Although the experimental vaccine certainly has a positive effect, much more needs to be done to limit the spread of the disease and halt the epidemic reported for the first time on August 1, 2018. A recent study found that many people in the DRC deny the existence of the virus. hatch or refuse to trust doctors and officials. Changing these attitudes will help stop the disease and put an end to this devastating epidemic.