The CDC’s Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention has provided an explanation for the lack of vaccines for the current Ebola outbreak in Africa.
In an interview with Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’ on Thursday, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC, said that partners view Ebola as an African issue, which is why there is no vaccine. “If this outbreak was in Western countries, vaccines would already be available,” Kaseya said.
The Bundibugyo virus, an extremely rare form of Ebola for which neither a vaccine nor a treatment has been authorised, is reportedly responsible for the current epidemic, according to Footynaija.
In contrast to the Ervebo vaccine, which was licensed for the strain that caused the West African pandemic between 2014 and 2016, he noted that there is no licensed shield for the Bundibugyo strain.
He states that the African CDC has begun testing novel vaccines in humans, including an Egyptian-made Bundibugyo vaccine.
According to him, this epidemic is the most geographically extensive in recorded history, touching three different regions of Africa and resulting in approximately 4,600 fatalities and 9,500 infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone.
Recall that on Tuesday, a woman who had arrived from Uganda on October 3 was the first instance that Nigeria confirmed; since then, 44 contacts have been closely monitored.