Via STAT, Helen Branswell writes: Debate over whether to test second Ebola vaccine turns acrimonious. Excerpt:
An aggressive push to use a second experimental Ebola vaccine to try to help stop the nearly yearlong outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may have backfired, with the DRC’s health minister insisting the country will not allow use of the vaccine, made by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.
The health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga, had previously suggested a consortium made up of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Doctors Without Borders, and others might be permitted to conduct a clinical trial of J&J’s Ebola vaccine in the country, although not in the outbreak zone, where Merck’s experimental vaccine is being used.
Late last week he rescinded that option, saying the country would not approve a trial of another experimental vaccine during the ongoing outbreak, which has infected more than 2,500 people and killed nearly 1,670.
"There’s a whole debate raging around vaccinations. And we need to close down this debate,” Ilunga said Monday at a World Health Organization meeting called to share updates on the outbreak with partners in the response and donor countries. “We have an effective weapon. … Let’s focus on that.”
That remark seemed to be a rebuttal to Dr. Josie Golding, epidemics lead at the Wellcome Trust, who moments earlier had urged the DRC to reconsider its decision to block use of other vaccines at this time. The Wellcome Trust is part of the consortium.
Golding said the Wellcome Trust strongly believes there is an urgent need to deploy and test the second experimental vaccine, of which there are over a million doses available. “We regret the recent announcement against the use of the J&J vaccine and ask for this to be reconsidered. The lives of the people in North Kivu, across DRC and the region, depend on it,” she said.
Peter Piot, dean of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, issued a statement Monday questioning the DRC’s decision, saying his institution trusts “the Minister’s decision [will] be reconsidered.”
But in an interview with STAT, Ilunga appeared unswayed. He criticized the actions of some who want to add the J&J vaccine to the outbreak response arsenal.
“We are in the presence of a very, very dangerous situation. We have people who don’t want to discuss [their plans] with the government. People who have no respect for ethics. And they are ready to introduce a new vaccine and to create new communications problems and trust problems with the community,” he said. “So I just made the decision to say no. We are not going to start a discussion again.”
