- Title: Congolese uneasy with plans to deploy a second Ebola vaccine
- Date: 30th July 2019
- Summary: GOMA, DRC (RECENT - JULY 18, 2019) (REUTERS) ISOLATION UNIT AT CLINIC VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AT EBOLA VACCINATION CENTRE
- Embargoed: 13th August 2019 11:03
- Keywords: Ebola outbreak second Ebola experimental vaccine resignation of Congo's health minister Oly Ilunga
- Location: GOMA, MBANDAKA, KINSHASA, DRC AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- City: GOMA, MBANDAKA, KINSHASA, DRC AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of the
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA002APYZYON
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The first Ebola vaccine was developed by Merck and deployed in 2018 in Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to fight the spread of the virus and control the epidemic when Ebola appeared in the east.
Former health minister Oly Ilunga, had opposed using the second vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. He resigned as minister last week (July 22) after being bumped off the Ebola response team.
The World Health Organization recommended the two-dose shot to complement the Merck vaccine which has proved highly protective but is in relatively short supply.
Proponents, including medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and the Wellcome Trust, said the new vaccine could be deployed to areas not yet affected by Ebola to create a firewall against the virus. The WHO declared an international health emergency last week.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, an epidemiologist and Ebola expert named to lead Congo's response team, dismissed Ilunga's concerns and said authorities would revisit whether to deploy a second vaccine.
"Johnson and Johnson, was the vaccine that presented us with the most data. Therefore this vaccine was our choice. We can therefore use this vaccine and we think that we will use this vaccine," said Muyembe in Goma on Monday (July 29).
The ministry has also considered potential vaccines developed by China's CanSino Biologics 6185.HK and the Russian research institutes Rospotrebnadzor and Gamaleya, but those discussions are less advanced.
Ilunga said the J&J vaccine had not been proven effective and could confuse people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where wild rumours are hampering the response.
Muyembe said scepticism in the population came from the fact that the health teams were from outside the region and that he would now put locals in charge of the Ebola response.
In the streets of Goma, medical students said they did not want the Congolese to be used as an experimentation for large pharmaceutical companies.
Paul Stoffels, J&J's chief scientific officer, denied there were any efforts to secretly introduce the vaccine and said the company had been in full communication with Congolese authorities.
But scepticism about new medicines can resonate strongly on a continent where some pharmaceutical trials have faced accusations in the past of failing to obtain informed consent and providing subpar care to participants.
For example, some U.S. government-funded trials of HIV drugs in the 1990s were accused of double standards for giving placebos to women in Africa when effective therapies existed, a practice that is not generally allowed in the United States and other Western nations on ethical grounds. Researchers defended the use of placebos as scientifically necessary.
The nearly year-long outbreak has infected more than 2,500 people and killed more than 1,700, numbers topped only by a 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,300. This month, a case was detected in Goma, a city of 2 million on the border with Rwanda, heightening fears about the spread of the haemorrhagic fever.
Efforts to contain it have been undermined by mistrust of health workers and violence by armed militias. Treatment centres have been attacked.
Local campaigners say people are scared and confused about the various medicines being used. In addition to the vaccine, four experimental treatments are being given to Ebola patients.
All are still unlicensed, which means they can only be used in clinical trials overseen by Congo's health ministry.
Proponents of a second vaccine argue it can only be tested in a live outbreak, since it would be unethical to deliberately infect trial volunteers. They propose deploying it where the disease has not yet spread, while the Merck vaccine continues to be used to protect contacts of suspected cases.
Since the West African outbreak, J&J has tested its vaccine on more than 6,000 volunteers in a dozen trials, confirming its safety and ability to generate an immune response.
It requires two injections 56 days apart - another obstacle cited by Ilunga - in an area where fighting causes frequent displacement, but should last longer.
Josie Golding, head of epidemics at the Wellcome Trust, said "we could run out of Merck vaccines" if the outbreak extends into a second year. Health authorities have already begun using smaller doses to ration supplies.
Congo's health ministry disputes there is a shortage of the Merck vaccine. The company said it expects to have about 900,000 doses available over the next six to 18 months, in addition to the 195,000 doses it has already donated. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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