DRC: A new Ebola vaccine could help stop an epidemic — but faces enormous obstacles in crucial test
By Lena H. Sun
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Authorities in Congo began an ambitious campaign this week to use a pioneering Ebola vaccine to help stem a growing outbreak of the deadly virus. It’s the first widespread use of the therapeutic since a devastating 2014 epidemic in West Africa and represents a major strategic shift for public health.
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But enormous challenges lie ahead as officials and others race against the virus to identify people in the high-risk groups being targeted for vaccination: front-line and medical workers, persons who had contact with confirmed cases and then contacts of those contacts. The goal is to form a buffer of immune individuals to rapidly prevent the disease from spreading. The first batch of vaccines — one-dose shots — is enough to vaccinate 50 “rings” of 150 people, officials said.
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The outbreak’s epicenter, the small town of Bikoro in Equateur province, is in one of the most remote parts of the country. Few roads are paved; electricity and telecommunications are nonexistent. The vaccines must be transported there while being kept at a temperature of -76 to -112 degrees Fahrenheit. They have been shipped from Geneva in special containers that can retain that cold temperature for up to six days, but generators also are being flown by helicopter to Bikoro, according to officials working on the response in Kinshasa.
The lack of health infrastructure likely will influence how the vaccine is received by communities, noted Juliet Bedford, director of Anthrologica, a U.K.-based research organization that specializes in applied anthropology in global health.
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