Ebola Vaccines will not be cheap
The Deputy Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, has stated that the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) vaccines expected to be available in January will not be cheap.
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He said because the vaccines would be expensive, African leaders needed to begin to dialogue with their development partners and the international community to ensure that it would become affordable to the developing world.
Dr Asamoa-Baah, who participated in the recent meeting for health ministers from Ebola affected countries in Accra, emphasised that the situation required that African leaders take a bold decision on how to make the vaccines accessible to their people.
Decisions needed
The deputy director further noted that since the vaccines had to be produced within a short period, side effects would not be immediately known.
This implies that individual countries must ensure that they put in place systems that will effectively deal with any unexpected side effects.
According to him, the number of vaccines that would be produced would not be enough. He has, therefore, called on governments to put in place measures that will ensure that the vaccines will be distributed to places where they are needed most.
Other issues
Other issues that also need to be critically considered before the vaccines arrive, he said, were the calibre of health personnel that would handle the vaccines and how to appropriately equip them to adhere to the standards that must be maintained for the vaccines to be effective.
Dr Asamoa-Baah also called for more discussions on the transfusion of blood from cured Ebola patients to affected patients, and explained that it had worked in some circumstances and therefore needed to be explored further.
