Three candidate Ebola vaccines in Uganda to be shipped next week: WHO

Uganda is going through a major outbreak of the deadly disease, and there have been 141 confirmed cases to date, and 22 probable cases, the UN News reported.

Bali [Indonesia], November 17 (ANI) Three candidate Ebola vaccines for the proposed clinical trials in Uganda will be delivered to the country next week, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday. "Today, I'm pleased to announce that a WHO committee of external experts has evaluated three Ebola candidate vaccines and agreed that all three should be included in the planned trial in Uganda," the WHO chief told journalists on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia.

"WHO and Uganda's Minster of Health have considered and accepted the committee's recommendation. We expect the first doses of vaccine to be shipped to Uganda next week," he added . Uganda is going through a major outbreak of the deadly disease, and there have been 141 confirmed cases to date, and 22 probable cases, the UN News reported.

Confirmed deaths total 55, with probable deaths at 22, while 73 people have recovered from the disease. The outbreak in Uganda was declared at the end of September. Since then, the authorities have been coordinating with the UN to speed up the development and deployment of vaccines for use in trials.

"Since the Ebola outbreak began, the government of Uganda, together with researchers, funders, companies, regulatory authorities and other partners has been working under a global effort coordinated by WHO to accelerate the development and deployment of vaccines for use in trials," he said. Meanwhile, a separate group of experts has already chosen two investigational therapeutics for the vaccine trial, as well as a trial design. (ANI)

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