Officials at the World Health
Organisation said that the first round of clinical trials of a potential
Ebola vaccine made by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline could begin next
month.
A vaccine resulting from the trials could possibly be....
available by 2015, MSN News reported Sunday.
Late last week, WHO declared the outbreak of deadly Ebola virus in West Africa a “public health emergency.”
The outbreak, which has already claimed
961 lives in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, “constitutes an
’extraordinary event’ and a public health risk to other States,” WHO
said in a statement.
The declaration was based on the unanimous decision of an emergency committee meeting convened last week.
“A coordinated international response is
deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of
Ebola,” the health organization said. Experts pointed to several ominous
factors, such as the emergence of cases of Ebola in densely populated
cities; cases arising among health-care workers that suggest “inadequate
infection control practices;” and generally “fragile” health-care
systems.
WHO recommended that each of the
countries affected by the outbreak declare a national emergency, clearly
inform the public of the situation and ramp up efforts to limit
transmission of the virus.
Meanwhile, medical ethicists will meet
this week to discuss who should have access to the limited supplies of
an experimental medicine for the deadly Ebola virus, WHO said.
The drug was given to and benefited Dr.
Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, two American aid workers who contracted
the disease in West Africa.
It was the first time the drug was tried on people, NBC News reported.
Share your thoughts....thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment