WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) has issued new recommendations to address vaccination challenges in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The recommendations include endorsing operational adjustments that make the vaccination process faster and adjusting the dosage based on available efficacy data, Additionally, because supplies of the approved Merck vaccine are running low, the strategy includes introducing Johnson & Johnson's experimental Ebola vaccine.
More than 111, 000 people have been vaccinated in the DRC since the outbreak was declared in August 2018. Despite the use of a highly efficacious vaccine, the number of new cases continues to rise, in part due to repeated incidents of violence affecting the ability of response teams to create vaccination rings around all people at risk of contracting Ebola.
Read the WHO press release.