Uganda starts Ebola vaccine trial after outbreak kills nurse

Uganda has launched a clinical trial for a vaccine targeting the Sudan strain of Ebola following a recent outbreak that has claimed the life of a nurse and affected two others, reports AP.

The trial, initiated on Monday, specifically aims at health workers and individuals exposed to the virus. It began just days after Uganda reported the death of the nurse in Kampala and confirmed two additional cases involving family members of the first victim.

Authorities are working to determine the origin of the outbreak, which spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle aches, and sometimes both internal and external bleeding.

The outbreak response may be challenging due to Kampala's large and mobile population of around 4 million people. The nurse who passed away sought treatment at a hospital near the capital before travelling to Mbale, in the eastern part of the country, where he was later admitted to a public hospital. Health officials also reported that the nurse had visited a traditional healer.

The Ministry of Health has identified at least 234 people who may have been in contact with the virus. They have access to over 2,000 doses of an experimental vaccine against the Sudan strain, provided by IAVI.

Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) director for Africa, called the trial a significant development in public health and highlighted the importance of global collaboration in health security.

This marks the first Ebola outbreak since the recent decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from the United Nations health agency and freeze foreign assistance. Uganda has faced several Ebola outbreaks in the past, including one in 2000 that claimed hundreds of lives. Contact tracing remains crucial in controlling the spread of the virus, which presents as a viral hemorrhagic fever.

The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, which was used during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo to protect 3,000 individuals at risk of the Zaire strain, has proven effective in limiting the virus's spread. The confirmation of Ebola in Uganda adds to a series of viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks in East Africa, following Tanzania's declaration of a Marburg disease outbreak last month and Rwanda's announcement that its own Marburg outbreak had ended in December.

Although the natural source of Ebola is still unknown, scientists suspect that the first person infected in an outbreak may have contracted the virus through contact with an infected animal or by consuming its raw meat. The disease was first identified in 1976 during simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, near the Ebola River, after which the virus was named.