Mozambique: Teachers threaten to boycott special exams
Mozambicans volunteers join Ebola vaccine trial
3:28 CAT | 20 Nov 2020
Mozambican doctor and researcher Márcia Massinga. [Photo: O País]
Eighty-four Mozambican volunteers were involved in the trial of an Ebola vaccine, the results of which indicate that it is highly effective in humans.
The trail, in which the National Institute of Health (INS) participated, was carried out in Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya and the United States of America (USA).
There is no record of Ebola in Mozambique cases, but the country’s high cross-border movement makes it vulnerable to the disease.
The 84 Mozambican volunteers joined the vaccine trial in 2017, by way of the Polana Caniço Health Training Centre.
The vaccine did not produce any serious side effects in humans.
“This vaccine has been shown to be able to generate an immune response against the Ebola virus in 99% of participants in African countries,” Doctor Márcia Massinga explained. “After the trial, the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” and the WHO recommended the use of this vaccine, which had already been administered to more than 50,000 people.
Ebola is a disease caused by a virus of the same name and the main symptom is hemorrhagic fever, which causes bleeding in internal organs. Symptoms of the disease include vomiting, diarrhoea and rashes, among others. The virus originates in Africa, where sporadic outbreaks have occurred for decades.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), it is a serious and often fatal disease, with a lethality rate of up to 90%, and is transmitted through direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissue of infected animals or people.
By Yumaina Mussane
Source: O País
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