Via Digitalcongo.net, an ACP report: DRC reaches 100,000 people vaccinated against Ebola in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces. The Google translation:
The milestone of one hundred thousand (100,000) people vaccinated against the Ebola virus disease was reached on Monday in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, northeastern DRC, the Ministry of Health reports. Its daily bulletin on the epidemiological situation of this disease, arrived Tuesday at the ACP.
According to the source, 100,470 people have been vaccinated since the start of the vaccination on 8 August 2018 until 15 April 2019. Of these, 27,766 front-line health workers, 26,328 high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and 46,376 contacts of contact. The strategy used to stop the spread of the disease is called belt vaccination. It aims to create a circle of people immunized against the Ebola virus around a confirmed patient in order to break the chain of transmission.
So far, the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine remains the only vaccine used in this outbreak, manufactured by the pharmaceutical group Merck, following the approval of the Ethics Committee in its decision of 19 May 2018.
The Ministry of Health also indicates that the preliminary results of a study by the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the very high efficacy of the vaccine and vaccination in a belt to limit the spread of the Ebola outbreak.
Moreover, the significant increase in new cases confirmed in recent weeks, particularly in active households in Butembo and Katwa, is partly explained by the temporary cessation of vaccination activities in March following the rise in violence against the teams of the response. Because of the problems of violence and safety, 45 vaccination rings could not be opened around confirmed cases.
