A health worker prepares a vaccine against Ebola in Goma
KAMPALA, Oct 16 (NNN-GNA) — Uganda will now go for vaccines under trial to protect the people from the Ebola virus, which broke out in the central district of Mubende and has spread to more five districts.
According to Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, about 470 doses will be flown from the UK and the US.
Museveni, who addressed the country on the disease, said the doses should specifically be used by medical workers, who are dealing with the cases every day.
So far, four of about 20 people who have died of Ebola are medical workers, while five others and about 20 patients have been discharged after fully recovering from the disease.
“Those vaccines, I think, should go to the health workers first. Health workers should be vaccinated because they are the ones who are at the front line,” Museveni said.
The World Health Organisation said the vaccines for the Sudan strain of Ebola, will be brought into the country next week. Uganda’s Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, said the country is expecting two different types of vaccines.
Both vaccines, according to the WHO, have not had the regulatory and ethical approvals and are in clinical trials. She says one is manufactured in Oxford, while the other, Sabin, is manufactured in the US. — NNN-GNA
