December 13, 2024 12:36 (IST)

Make this your homepage

Foreign

Congress always prioritised personal interest over Constitution: Rajnath Singh | Jaishankar calls attack on Hindus in Bangladesh 'a source of concern' | Allu Arjun arrested over woman's death in stampede during Pushpa 2 premiere show | RBI receives bomb threat in Russian language, case filed | UP teenager kills mother, lives with body for 5 days | At least six people including a child killed in Tamil Nadu hospital fire | Amid Atul Subhash row, SC says mere harassment is not enough to prove abetment to suicide | India's D Gukesh becomes youngest ever world champion in chess | Devendra Fadnavis meets PM Modi amid suspense over Maharashtra portfolio allocation | Congress wants to deviate the issue of Sonia Gandhi-George Soros link: JP Nadda

Ebola case in Sierra Leone prompts expansion of experimental vaccine trial: WHO

India Blooms News Service | | Sep 02, 2015, at 02:40 pm

#Ebola # Sierra Leone # WHO

New York, Sep 2 (IBNS): The detection of a new case of Ebola in Sierra Leone over the weekend after the West African country had marked almost three weeks of zero cases has prompted the use of an experimental vaccine to fight the disease, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

“Although no-one wanted to see more cases of Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone, we kept all our teams on alert and ready to respond and close down any new transmission” said Dr. Anders Nordstrom, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone.

A team of experts conducting the so-called “ring vaccination” trial in Conakry, Guinea travelled to the Kambia district in Sierra Leone where the new case was reported on Saturday, WHO said in a press release.

The source of the Ebola virus transmission is being investigated and all the people who may have been in contact with the infected person are being traced, according to the health agency.

Interim results published last July show that the Guinea ring vaccination trial vaccine is highly effective against Ebola.

The ‘ring vaccination’ strategy involves vaccinating all contacts – the people known to have come into contact with a person confirmed to have been infected with Ebola – and contacts of contacts.

Meanwhile, heightened surveillance for Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone includes swabbing all people who have died at home and testing those swabs for Ebola virus.

WHO said on Saturday, 29th August, a swab taken from a woman who died aged around 60, in the village of Sella, Tonko Limba, Kambia district, tested positive for Ebola virus.

Photo: WHO/S. Gborie

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.