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More than 1,600 people have received Ebola virus vaccines in Guinea, where four have died in a new outbreak, but more life-saving injections will be needed to contain the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
To date, 18 Ebola cases have been reported in the West African nation (14 confirmed and four deaths); Only 30,000 Ebola vaccines are available, out of a global stock of half a million.
“We are using ring vaccination,” said Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall, WHO deputy director general responsible for emergency response, referring to the strategy that inhibits the spread of a disease by vaccinating only those most likely to become infected.
“We are vaccinating the contacts of the cases, the contact of the contacts and their contacts. With this strategy we can control these types of outbreaks. But we are going to need more vaccines,” Dr. Fall told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
“If the outbreak spreads to other countries, we have limited stocks,” said WHO Director of Strategic Health Operations Dr. Michel Yao.
He was speaking by videoconference from the town of Nzérékoré in Guinea, one of the epicenters of the outbreak, which is located near the border with Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.
The latest Ebola outbreak in Guinea, which began in 2014, quickly spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. By the time it was finally brought under control, it had become the deadliest Ebola outbreak since it was first detected in 1976, with some 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.
“There are six neighboring countries to Guinea, and we conducted a self-assessment of preparedness,” said Gueye Abdou Salam, Regional Director of Emergencies for the WHO regional office for Africa, speaking from Brazzaville. “Two of the countries are not ready, and one country is on the edge and there are three countries that are more or less ready.”
Facing past Ebola outbreaks has given health authorities a considerable advantage this time, experts agreed.
“It is important to learn the lessons of these outbreaks,” said Dr. Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, WHO Representative in Guinea, who highlighted the need to ensure the trust of local communities in all areas where vaccination campaigns were planned. .
“The place where we launched the vaccination campaign in Gouecke, a few kilometers from there, is the village of Wome. This is where a team of officials and first responders were trapped and died in the last outbreak of 2015. Therefore, we must have That is taken into account when engaging with communities to make sure we listen to them, “said Dr. Ki-Zerbo.
There is broad consensus among health officials that acting quickly is a crucial factor in controlling the spread of Ebola, but that preventive measures and better preparedness are also needed to protect people from a broader range of pathogens.
Dr. Fall argued that the world will face an increasing number of health epidemics, especially as human habitats invade forest areas.
“We are increasingly in a situation where we have to face multiple epidemics,” he said. “Countries must be able to respond to multiple epidemics, but especially through preventive measures.”
A current challenge is that the strong focus on the COVID-19 pandemic makes it more difficult to focus global attention on the tools needed to respond to any other emerging pathogens.
(With contributions from agencies)
