WHO announces clinical trials of Ebola vaccine in Uganda

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that three trial vaccines for Ebola will arrive in Uganda next week.

The announcement was made during the G20 meeting in Indonesia.

"Today I'm pleased to announce that the WHO committee of external experts, has evaluated three candidate vaccines and agreed that all three should be included in the planned trial in Uganda. WHO and Uganda's minister of health has conceded and accepted the committee's recommendation. We expect that the first dose of vaccines to be shipped to Uganda next week", announced Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

An Ebola outbreak in Uganda was declared in late September. Since then, Ebola claimed at least 55 deaths.

"We hope - I dearly hope - that this epidemic goes away. And this epidemic is controllable without vaccines, it's clear that we can get containment without vaccines. But it's also clear from the Congo experience that you can get to control much quicker using effective vaccines and that's where the answers we need to get", said Michael Ryan, WHO health emergencies director.

Two of the three trial vaccines were developed in the UK, the third trial vaccine comes from the US.