Congo receives first doses of Ebola vaccine as outbreak hits urban centre

The first batch of 4,000experimental Ebola vaccines to combat an outbreak suspected ofkilling 23 people arrived in Congo's capital Kinshasa onWednesday.

The Health Ministry said vaccinations would start at theweekend, the first time the vaccine would come into use since itwas developed two years ago.

The vaccine, partially designed by the Canadian government and developed by Merck, was sent from Europe by theWorld Health Organization (WHO). The vaccine is still not licensed but provedeffective during limited trials in West Africa in the biggestever outbreak of Ebola, which killed 11,300 people in Guinea,Liberia and Sierra Leone between2014 and 2016.

Health officials hope they can use it to contain the latestoutbreak in northwest Congo.

The outbreak was first spotted in theBikorozone, which has31 of the cases and 274 contacts. There have also been eightcases and 115 contacts inIbokohealth zone.

Outbreak in 'new phase'

Late Wednesday, Congo's health minister announced a case of Ebola inMbandaka, a city in the northwest which has a population of about one million people. The WHO has saidwas concerned about the disease reachingMbandakabecause the city's densitywould make the outbreak far harder to tackle.

Health MinisterOlyIlungaKalengasaid in a statement that thecountry's Ebola outbreak had entered "a new phase" after the case was confirmed.

The WHO said 1,500 sets of personal protectiveequipment and an emergency sanitary kit sufficient for 10,000people for three months were being put in place.

Health workers have recorded confirmed, probable andsuspected cases of Ebola in three health zones of Congo'sEquateur province, and have identified 432 people who may havehad contact with the disease.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the supplies sent toCongo included more than 300 body bags for safe burials in
affected communities. The vaccine will be reserved for peoplesuspected of coming into contact with the disease, as well ashealth workers.

Tracing more than 4,000contacts of patients

"In our experience, for each confirmed case of Ebola thereare about 100 to 150 contacts and contacts of contacts eligible forvaccination," Jasarevic said. "So it means this first shipmentwould be probably enough for around 25-26 rings each aroundone confirmed case."

The vaccine is complicated to use, requiring storage at atemperature between 60 and 80 C.

"It is extremely difficult to do that as you can imagine ina country with very poor infrastructures," Salama said.

"The other issue is, we are now tracing more than 4,000contacts of patients and they have spread out all over theregion of northwest Congo, so they have to be followed up andthe only way to reach them is motorcycles."