The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday that it intends to deploy an experimental Ebola vaccine to tackle the current epidemic in a remote area of Congo to mitigate it spreading, particularly to the provincial capital of 1 million people.
Congo reported the outbreak on Tuesday, with 32 suspected, probable or confirmed cases of the disease since April 4, including 18 deaths. A new suspected case was reported on Friday.
WHO is moving swiftly, having been criticised for bungling its response to a 2014-2016 outbreak that lead to the deaths of more than 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
“We are very concerned and planning for all scenarios, including the worst case scenario,” Peter Salama, WHO’s Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva.
The outbreak area is 15 hours by motorbike from the closest town and has “absolutely dire” infrastructure, Salama said, so the WHO wants to send in 20 to 40 experts by helicopter this weekend and then clear an airstrip for more supplies.
“This is going to be tough and it’s going to be costly to stamp out this outbreak,” he said.
