The Ebola outbreak in Congo has been confirmed to be the Zaire strain of the virus and vaccinations of health workers may start on Wednesday, a senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness and Response, gave the results of genetic sequencing in a tweet, saying that analysis showed it was a new outbreak in North Kivu province.
He said: “We can start using rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine as early as tomorrow.”
Reuters reported that the experimental vaccine, manufactured by Merck, proved successful during its first wide-scale usage against an outbreak of Zaire virus on the other side of Congo in the northwest.
The Ebola outbreak was declared less than two weeks ago after killing 33.
More than 3,000 doses remain in stock in the capital Kinshasa, allowing authorities to quickly deploy it to the affected areas near the Ugandan border.
The vaccine normally needs to be kept at 80 degrees Celsius below freezing (minus 112 Fahrenheit), although it can be stored for a couple of weeks at just above freezing.
NAN
