Reacting to the introduction of a second vaccine in the response to the Ebola outbreak, WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement quoted by AFP that while deciding to deploy the second experimental vaccine, the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, once again, showed leadership and determination.
This second experimental vaccine is manufactured by Johnson & Johnson. It requires administration of two to 56 days apart. WHO says it will be given to the populations at targeted risk in areas of the DRC where there is no Ebola virus transmission.
WHO has undertaken a major reform of its functioning after being criticized by MSF for its slowness in response and for failing to gauge the scale of the epidemic before it exploded.
In July, MSF President Joanne Liu called on WHO to vaccinate whole villages of infected people, instead of only vaccinating patient contacts and contact of contacts according to the so-called "ring vaccination" strategy in a belt ".
The NGO also refuses the argument of a supply crisis: "Merck has just declared that in addition to the 245,000 doses already delivered to the WHO, they were ready to send 190,000 other doses if necessary and that another 650,000 would be made available in the next six to 18 months ".
Denouncing the "opacity" of WHO, MSF calls now for "the creation of an independent international coordinating committee", integrating WHO, MSF, the Red Cross and UNICEF, to ensure in particular "transparency on inventory management "of vaccines.
(CKS/Yes)