HEALTH | EBOLA | VACCINES 

KAMPALA - Health experts have assured Ugandans of safety in the forthcoming Ebola trial vaccination exercise and encouraged those at risk, especially contacts, to take part in it.

Speaking to journalists at Fairway Hotel Monday (October 24) in Kampala, Dr. Ivan Kimuli, a public health specialist and Case Management Officer with the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the forthcoming trials are normal in vaccine development and safe.

“Nobody will be forced to participate in the trials. It is voluntary and people have to consent. But it will be good to take part. Even Covid-19 vaccines were tried somewhere and later the entire world benefitted. 

Even the Ebola Zaire vaccine had to be tested during the outbreak in Guinea. When the vaccine was released, the president of Guinea said it was a gift from his people to the world,” he said.

Dr Kimuli said the trial vaccines have undergone several safety studies conducted by experts.

Currently, there is no clear treatment or vaccine for Ebola Sudan which is ravaging Uganda. Only Ebola Zaire has approved treatment and vaccine.

Speaking to journalists about the Ebola outbreak in Uganda in an online meeting recently, Dr Otim Patrick Cossy Ramadan, the regional epidemiologist at the WHO Emergency Hub in Nairobi, Kenya said the only way the efficacy of a vaccine can be tested was in a disease outbreak setting.

“Even the vaccine against the Ebola Zaire strain was tested during the 2014 outbreak of the disease in the West. The testing has to be in an outbreak setting, there is no other way,” he said.

 Vaccination to start

On Wednesday (October 26, 2022, the health minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, announced that vaccine trials for Ebola Sudan which is currently ravaging Uganda would commence in a few weeks’ time on 3,000 people who are at risk (contacts).

While touring Ebola isolation centres in Mulago and Entebbe last week, Aceng said two vaccines were ready for trial in Uganda.

“We have the Oxford vaccine from the UK and the Sabin vaccine from the US. Right now, our protocols are ready, they have been reviewed by the National Council of Science and Technology. The teams that are going to handle the vaccines are all ready and set. All that is required for the vaccine in terms of cold chain is ready,” she said.

But rights experts have asked the Government to ensure that it seeks consent from people before they are vaccinated like the case was with COVID-19.

Michael Aboneka, a human rights lawyer, said: “The Government must seek their consent, whether it is trials or not. The people have a right to consent or not to medical procedure.”

 Guinea trials

The first Ebola vaccine trials were carried out on 11,000 people in Guinea after an Ebola outbreak there. 

Apart from Guinea, the virus also spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was the worst Ebola outbreak in human history with 28,616 confirmed cases and 11,310 deaths. 

The WHO-led trials in Guinea resulted in the approval of the vaccine against Ebola Zaire. 

The trials started in March 2015 and ended in July 2016. After the approval of the vaccine, Guinea was internationally applauded for playing a key role in the development of the vaccine.