WHO: Ebola Vaccine May Take Nine Months, Cases Rise

New York. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that it may take up to nine months for a vaccine against the Bundibugyo species of Ebola to be ready.

According to information provided by WHO advisor Dr. Wasi Murti on Wednesday, two potential vaccines are being developed against the Bundibugyo species. However, none of them have undergone clinical trials yet.

WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that 600 suspected Ebola patients have been found and 139 deaths are suspected. This number is expected to increase as it took time to detect the virus.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Tedros said that 51 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), where the infection was first seen, and two cases in neighboring Uganda. Although the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, it clarified that it has not reached the level of an epidemic.

According to Tedros, the meeting of the organization's emergency committee held on Tuesday agreed that this situation is not a public health emergency. He stated that the WHO has assessed the risk of this epidemic as high at the national and regional levels and low at the global level.

The 51 confirmed cases in DR Congo are from the eastern Ituri and North Kivu provinces, which are the epicenter of the epidemic. Of the two patients confirmed in Uganda's capital Kampala, both had traveled from DR Congo, and one of them has died.

The WHO chief said that they are aware that the scope of the epidemic in DR Congo is very large, and it is a matter of particular concern that health workers are among those who have died. According to local health workers, some health facilities are overflowing with patients. They say that although personal protective equipment has started to arrive, they are still working without adequate protection.

Tris Newport, emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said that health facilities are informing them that they are full of suspected patients and there is no space available. She told the AFP news agency that this shows how dire the current situation is.

The first known infected case so far is a nurse, who died on April 24 in Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri, after showing symptoms. Her body was returned to Mongwalu, which is one of the two gold mining cities where most of the patients have been found.