By Talkafrica Correspondent
Kinshasa, DRC: The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced an Ebola vaccination rollout that began in North Kivu Province, this comes barely a week following the death of a 2-year-old boy in a local health facility.
The vaccination is aimed at people who are high risk, including contacts of the confirmed case and first responders will receive the doses as the health authorities move to curb the spread of the virus.
The two- year old is said to have lived in the same community where three members of the same family died in September after experiencing Ebola-like symptoms.
Over 1000 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine and other medical supplies were delivered from the capital Kinshasa to Goma city in North Kivu and around 200 doses were sent onward to Beni city, which is near the Butsili health area where the confirmed case was detected.
Vaccinators are using the “ring vaccination” approach, where contacts and contacts of contacts are vaccinated. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has more than 12 000 vaccine doses in Kinshasa that can be deployed if necessary.
“Ebola is a virulent, lethal virus that can spread aggressively and fast. But vaccines can create a firewall of protection around cases, stopping the chain of transmission, averting a potentially large outbreak and saving many lives,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Adding “The Democratic Republic of the Congo is spearheading the efforts to halt this latest Ebola resurgence, banking on expertise built-in responding to previous outbreaks,” said Dr. Moeti.
In addition to organizing vaccination activities, emergency response teams are working around the clock to trace contacts, decontaminate infected spaces, and step up surveillance and testing. Already, more than 170 contacts have been identified and teams are monitoring their health.
To support the national authorities in the response efforts, WHO has released US$ 200 000 through its Contingency Fund for Emergencies. WHO is also in the process of shipping five tons worth of response supplies, including therapeutics, personal protective equipment, and laboratory materials.
Beni was one of the epicenters of the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and is about 50 km from Butembo city which experienced a new Ebola outbreak earlier this year.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Institute of Biomedical Research’s main laboratory in Kinshasa is currently testing samples of the confirmed case to identify the strain with expected results.
