Ebola vaccines

Krista Larson Associated Press Published 6:51 PM EDT Jul 24, 2019 Beni, Congo – Until his last breath, Salomon Nduhi Kambale insisted he had been poisoned by someone and that was the reason he was vomiting blood. The 30-year-old man wouldn’t give community health teams his phone number, and when they found it, he hung up on them. Health workers were desperate to persuade him to get vaccinated for Ebola after a friend fell ill with the lethal and highly contagious disease. But within days, Nduhi was dead. His widow and their four young children were given his positive Ebola test result and a chilling warning from a team of health workers: “If you don’t accept vaccination, you can prepare to die.” Deep distrust – along with political instability and deadly violence – has severely undermined efforts by public health authorities in Congo to curb the outbreak by tracing and vaccinating those who may have come into contact with infected … [Read more...] about Ebola vaccine’s promise undermined by deep distrust in Congo

Saleh Mwanamilongo Associated Press Published 9:16 p.m. UTC Aug 25, 2018 Kinshasa, Congo – Congo’s health ministry says two of the first 10 people to receive an experimental treatment for the Ebola virus in the latest outbreak have recovered, and monitoring could show what role the treatment played. The head of the World Health Organization on Saturday congratulated Congo’s government for making several experimental treatments available in this Ebola outbreak, calling it “a global first, and a ray of hope for people with the disease.” The two people received the mAb114 treatment isolated from a survivor of an Ebola outbreak in 1995. It was the first of five experimental treatments Congo approved for use in the outbreak that was declared on Aug. 1. The others are ZMapp, Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Regn3450 - 3471 - 3479. WHO’s emergency preparedness chief on Friday said Ebola has spread to an area of high security risk, a “pivotal” … [Read more...] about Congo: 2 who received experimental Ebola treatment recover

Saleh Mwanamilongo Associated Press Published 1:45 p.m. UTC Aug 25, 2018 Kinshasa, Congo – Congo’s health ministry says two of the first 10 people to receive an experimental treatment for the Ebola virus in the latest outbreak have recovered, and monitoring could show what role the treatment played. The head of the World Health Organization on Saturday congratulated Congo’s government for making several experimental treatments available in this Ebola outbreak, calling it “a global first, and a ray of hope for people with the disease.” The two people received the mAb114 treatment isolated from a survivor of an Ebola outbreak in 1995. It was the first of five experimental treatments Congo approved for use in the outbreak that was declared on Aug. 1. The others are ZMapp, Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Regn3450 - 3471 - 3479. WHO on Friday said Ebola has spread to an area of high security risk, a “pivotal” moment that endangers the health of … [Read more...] about 2 who received experimental Ebola treatment recover

Sam Mednick Associated Press Published 11:54 p.m. UTC Jun 11, 2018 Mbandaka, Congo – Irene Mboyo Mola spent 11 days caring for her husband as he died of Ebola in a hospital where she said nurses were too scared to get close. She helped him to the bathroom, picked up his feverish body when he lost his balance, and reinserted an IV that fell out of his bleeding arm. “He told me all he could see was death,” recalls Mola, a 30-year-old mother of six, as she sat slumped on the floor in her small hut. That close contact put Mola at high risk of getting a disease that has no cure and kills about half of those infected. But now, as Congo battles the most serious Ebola outbreak since the devastating 2014 epidemic in West Africa, health workers have something new to offer: a vaccine. With thousands of doses dispatched to front-line health workers, the world is watching to see if a promising but still experimental vaccine might help stop this terrifying disease faster … [Read more...] about Test of Ebola vaccine raises hopes, doubts in Congo

Saleh Mwanamilongo Associated Press Published 5:16 p.m. UTC May 26, 2018 Kinshasa, Congo – Ebola vaccinations will begin Monday in the two rural areas of Congo where the latest deadly outbreak was declared this month, the health ministry said Saturday, as the number of confirmed Ebola cases rose to 35, including 10 deaths. A vaccination campaign is already under way in Mbandaka, the city of 1.2 million on the Congo River where four Ebola cases have been confirmed. About 100 health workers have been vaccinated there as front-line workers face high risk from the virus, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead. The vaccination campaign will begin Monday in the rural areas of Bikoro and Iboko in the country’s northwest, health ministry spokeswoman Jessica Ilunga told The Associated Press. “The health minister can be found at this moment in Bikoro for assessing the preparations for the vaccination campaign,” … [Read more...] about Ebola vaccinations begin in rural Congo on Monday