Ebola virus: Liberian health care ‘falling apart’ as WHO confirms vaccine for 2015
THE WORLD Health Organisation has announced that a life-saving Ebola vaccine will NOT be ready until next year.
By: Aaron Brown
Express.co.uk
August 10, 2014
There is currently no cure for the “painful, dreadful, merciless virus” ravaging West Africa – and as the death toll nears 1,000 people there is growing pressure to rush a vaccine.
Yesterday, the WHO confirmed that clinical trails of a vaccine were set to get underway, with widespread use predicted by early 2015.
“Will it have been tested as well as other vaccines we put out in the field? No, absolutely not,” said Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant director-general of the UN health agency.
The rapid spread of the deadly Ebola virus – which WHO has warned can hold a mortality rate of 90% – is pushing health care systems, government contingency plans and human resilience to the test in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria where a total of 1,779 people have contracted the virus.
Speaking to the BBC, Medecins sans Frontieres co-ordinator for Liberia Lindis Hurum said: “Our capacity is stretched beyond anything that we ever done before in regards to ebola response.
“We are definitely seeing the whole health care system that is falling apart”.
World Health Organisation officials have also admitted an inability to cope with the growing epidemic.
Director general Margaret Chan said: “The outbreak is moving faster than we can control it”.
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