MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2019) The US food and Drug Administration has approved the first vaccine against the Ebola virus, dubbed Ervebo, according to a press release.
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today the approval of Ervebo, the first FDA-approved vaccine for the prevention of Ebola virus disease (EVD), caused by Zaire ebolavirus in individuals 18 years of age and older," the administration said on Thursday.
According to the release, the risk of the disease in the United States remains low, and the registered cases were "the result of infections acquired by individuals in other countries who then traveled" to the country or "health care workers who became ill after treating patients with EVD [Ebola virus disease]."
The release also quoted FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs Anna Abram as saying that the vaccine's approval was an important step to fight the virus across the world, including the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Ebola is a highly contagious viral disease, which affects both people and animals and is transmitted via direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of those infected. An outbreak in three West African countries, namely Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, from 2014-2016 was the largest since the virus was discovered in 1976 and killed more than 11,000 people.
In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a public health emergency of international concern when a new case was reported in the DRC's Goma, a city of about 2 million bordering Rwanda. In just over a year, the Ebola epidemic has become the second deadliest on record with more than 2,000 deaths so far. The vaccine was used by the WHO as a trial to fight the disease in the country.
