Ebola: Africa CDC plans to use vaccine for different strain as outbreak spreads

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control pledged to deploy a vaccine for a previous Ebola strain in the current DRC outbreak, with test cases indicating a potentially live-saving level of protection. African health authorities say they would start using a vaccine for the prior Zaire ebolavirus strain to treat the current outbreak involving a different, fast spreading strain known as Bundibugyo. The ongoing outbreak is centered in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) . The director general of the African Centres for Disease Control, or Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, told reporters in a videoconference on Thursday that there was evidence of the vaccine eliminating deaths, if not symptoms, in the test cases conducted so far. The Africa CDC and the World Health Organization also plan to launch research checking for a possible mutation or some other abnormality in the current outbreak, as the virus spreads at a rate six to eight times faster than any past outbreak on record.

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