{"id":71291,"date":"2014-10-23T03:06:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T03:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=71291"},"modified":"2014-10-23T03:06:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T03:06:07","slug":"as-ebola-response-accelerates-un-health-agency-prepares-for-arrival-of-trial-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=71291","title":{"rendered":"As Ebola response accelerates, UN health agency prepares for arrival of trial vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"

21 October 2014 \u2013 Amid positive developments in the global fight against Ebola, including a growing response to the Secretary-General\u2019s appeals for the more funding to tackle the outbreak, the United Nations health agency today announced the expected delivery of Ebola candidate vaccines, as the UN system continues to ramps up efforts to quell the spread of the deadly virus. <\/span><\/p>\n

World Health Organization (<\/span>WHO<\/span><\/span><\/a>) spokeswoman, Fad\u00e9la Chaib, told a <\/span>press briefing<\/span><\/span><\/a> in Geneva earlier today that the agency is expecting the arrival of a Canadian shipment of Ebola candidate vaccines to arrive in Geneva on 22 October where they would be kept refrigerated at the city\u2019s Cantonal Hospital. <\/span><\/p>\n

The delivery of the vaccines is the next step in a process initiated by the WHO in late September when it organized an expert consultation featuring more than 70 experts to assess the status of work to test and eventually license two candidate Ebola vaccines. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe overarching objective was to take stock of the many efforts currently under way to rapidly evaluate Ebola vaccines for safety and efficacy. The next step is to make these vaccines available as soon as possible \u2013 and in sufficient quantities \u2013 to protect critical frontline workers and to make a difference in the epidemic\u2019s future evolution,\u201d the WHO explained in a statement which added that the \u201cultimate goal\u201d was to have \u201ca fully tested and licensed product that can be scaled up for use in mass vaccination campaigns.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The announcement of the arrival of the candidate vaccines follows the UN agency\u2019s recent confirmation that both Nigeria and Senegal are now free of Ebola virus transmission, after 42 days without a single case \u2013 a fact the WHO celebrated as \u201ca spectacular success story.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Ms. Chaib stated that the three remaining affected countries \u2013 Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone \u2013 were \u201ccertainly underreporting\u201d the scope of their epidemics, but that it remained \u201cimpossible to tell to which degree.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Responding to questions from reporters, the spokesperson also acknowledged \u201cperceptions of delays\u201d in the WHO\u2019s response, adding that the agency would conduct \u201cin due time a thorough review of its response.\u201d Right now, she continued, the focus remained on fighting the disease and minimizing its impact on the West African population. <\/span><\/p>\n

Also addressing the press briefing was a spokesperson for the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (<\/span>UNICEF<\/span><\/span><\/a>), Christophe Boulierac, who drew renewed attention to the plight of Ebola survivors who struggle with stigmatization, isolation and psycho-social stress despite overcoming the disease. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Boulierac explained that even though Ebola survivors were no longer contagious and had developed immunity from the virus, many were kept at a distance by their communities, noting that in one instance the daughter of a survivor was not allowed to play with children. <\/span><\/p>\n

The spokesperson told journalists that despite the stigma, a UNICEF-backed centre in Liberia had identified and trained 20 survivors to help at care centres throughout the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that the survivors are no longer afraid of catching the virus and the fact that they had overcome their own sufferings and could relate to the current patients placed them in a unique position to provide care, especially to children, concluded Mr. Boulierac. <\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in a statement released by the UN spokesperson in New York, <\/span>Secretary-General<\/span><\/span><\/a> Ban Ki-moon welcomed the uptick in the financing of the Ebola Multi-Partner Trust Fund which forms part of the monetary groundwork for the global Ebola response as well as the wider <\/span>UN response<\/span><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Secretary-General established the Fund to provide \u201ca flexible, accountable, strategic and transparent platform to finance critical unfunded priorities and help reduce the rate of Ebola transmission,\u201d the statement said, explaining that it would help provide a range of materials, including trained medical personnel, mobile laboratories, vehicles, helicopters, protective equipment, and medevac capacities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Ban noted that the total amount of commitments and pledges now stood at $50 million and urged all countries who had already contributed \u201cto consider what more they can do, and those who have yet to contribute to do so as a matter of urgency.\u201d The Organization had initially set the target of $100 million to be reached by the end of October. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEbola is a major global problem that demands a massive and immediate global response,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

United Nations<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/strong><\/em>hr><\/p>\n

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21 October 2014 \u2013 Amid positive developments in the global fight against Ebola, including a growing response to the Secretary-General\u2019s appeals for the more funding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":48372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,751,10],"tags":[19779,19780],"class_list":["post-71291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-global-news","category-health","tag-ebola-trial-vaccine","tag-ebola-vaccine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}