KINSHASA: The Democratic Republic of Congo has approved using an experimental Ebola vaccine to combat an outbreak of the virus in the north-east, the government said on Monday.

“The DRC accepts the use of vaccines against the Ebola virus,” a source in the health ministry told AFP, adding that the government concluded it had no objections to the tests being conducted in the country. “We’re waiting for an operational plan from our partners which will determine what steps need to be taken, in which geographic areas we could vaccinate,” the source added, on condition of anonymity.

There is no licensed vaccine for the Ebola virus, but the World Health Organization said this month that a promising candidate vaccine exists and could be deployed within a matter of days if the DR Congo government gave its approval.

On May 12, DR Congo declared an outbreak of the highly contagious disease, the eighth to date in a sprawling country five times the size of France. It is the first outbreak of Ebola, which spreads by contact with bodily fluids, since the west Africa epidemic that ended in January last year after killing more than 11,300 people and sickening nearly 29,000.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2017