The US Food and Drug administration (FDA) has announced its approval for
a vaccine for the prevention of the deadly Ebola virus. Ebola virus disease (EVD) is caused by Zaire ebolavirus. In a press release, FDA stated that the vaccine, Ervebo, was developed by Merck ,a US multinational and one of the largest pharmaceutical firms globally. Speaking about the approval of the vaccine, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, called the new vaccine “a triumph of American global health leadership.”
Africa has been fighting the devastating Ebola outbreaks for years. So far no effective vaccine had been discovered to control the outbreak. Currently the outbreak of Ebola in DRC has caused heavy loss of life. The Zaire strain of the Ebola virus has resulted in more than 2,000 deaths in the eastern DRC, and more than 11,000 deaths during an outbreak in 2014 in West Africa.The highly contagious Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood, body fluids and the tissue of infected wild animals or people.
Though the risk of Ebola in US is limited to health care workers or Ebola infected people travelling to US, the US government is deeply committed to fight the disease, the statement said.
