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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Uganda has begun vaccinating health workers against Ebola in a neighboring border district of the Congo epidemic, where the highly infectious viral disease has killed 189 people.
The inoculations, which use an experimental vaccine, began on Wednesday and are part of a larger Ebola prevention plan in a country that has been facing several Ebola outbreaks since 2000.
In recent months, cases of Ebola have been confirmed near the heavily trafficked border between Uganda and Congo, where 270 cases have been reported in the northeastern part of the country since August.
Anthony Mbonye, professor of health sciences at Makerere University, Uganda, said vaccinations were essential to stopping transmission "in a highly endemic area of haemorrhagic fevers".
According to local health officials, bi-weekly market days – during which some 10,000 Congolese cross the country – put Uganda at high risk. They say that unofficial border crossings are also a source of concern.
Health workers are usually among the first to be infected during an Ebola outbreak.
The death of a young Ugandan doctor because of the Ebola virus in 2000, one of the 200 people killed during this epidemic, provoked a national wave of grief and helped to better understand how the Ebola virus is transmitted. .
Immunizations underway in Uganda targeting front-line health workers will be carried out in five districts along the border with Congo. Several studies have shown that the vaccine was safe and protected against the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization said in a statement.
The vaccine, although subject to extensive scientific research and not yet authorized, is "used for humanitarian purposes to protect those most at risk from the outbreak of Ebola," the report said. communicated.
In Congo, where thousands of people have received the experimental Ebola vaccine, an alarming number of vaccinated health workers have been infected.
The WHO said last month that the epidemic in Congo did not warrant yet to be declared a global emergency, but called for an "intensified" response. Dozens of others have since died, according to a report released by the Congo Ministry of Health.
For Congolese health workers, the fight against the virus has proved to be a challenge in a densely populated region traversed by armed groups.
Investigators believe that the first Ebola virus victim in any outbreak acquires the virus after being in contact with a "reservoir" animal, such as an infected bat or a monkey.
The Ebola virus was first reported in the Congo in 1976 and owes its name to the river where it was recognized.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the fluids of an infected person or with objects contaminated with infected secretions.
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