South Sudan health workers are to be vaccinated against the deadly Ebola virus as the outbreak continues to worsen in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The World Health Organization said on Monday that about 2,000 healthcare and frontline workers will get the chance to take the Ebola vaccines.
W.H.O said a total of 2,160 doses of the experimental vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV have been reserved for the vaccination exercise in South Sudan.
The vaccination is expected to begin on December 19, with hopes that it will prevent potential outbreak in the East African country.
In November, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) raised an Ebola alert following reports that some persons have crossed into South Sudan from DR Congo.
Uganda is already vaccinating its citizens in areas close to the DR Congo border.
Ebola in DR Congo getting out of control
Last week WHO officials said that the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was getting out of control.
The global body has said that the outbreak is “now second largest historically. A sad toll, with too many families losing loved ones.”
So far “426 cases including 245 deaths” have been recorded, an official briefing from the WHO said.
Many of these cases have been reported in the town of Beni, the epicentre of the recent outbreak. Fighting the outbreak in Beni has also become a challenge due to ongoing conflict there.
The current outbreak is the second to hit the central African country after the previous outbreak was declared over.
Source: Africafeeds.com
