The Canadian Public
Health Agency has offered to release 1000 dose of a made-in-Canada experimental
Ebola virus vaccine known as VSV-EBOV which has never been tested on
humans but has shown to be effective in the treatment of the disease in
animals.
In a statement released
yesterday August 12th, the Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose said the
World Health Organization’s Director general, Margaret Chan, has approved
of the donation.
The Minister also
revealed that Canada will be donating $ 185,000 to the World Health
Organization for the prevention and control of the deadly virus in
Africa. Canada has only 1500 of the experimental vaccine and would be sending 1000 of
it to Africa. Continue…
“I was pleased to offer
the experimental vaccine developed by Canadian researchers as a global resource
to help fight this outbreak,” she said, adding that between 800 and 1,000 doses
would be donated to the WHO.
The Minister in the
statement added that “Canada feels this experimental vaccine is a global
resource, so in response we are sharing it with the international community,
while keeping a small supply in Canada.”
The news comes hours
after the World Health Organization said a panel of experts advised that it
would be ethical to use untested drugs and vaccines in this raging epidemic,
which is several times larger than any previous outbreak.
No comments:
Post a Comment