Dive Brief:
- The latest and most severe Ebola outbreak has killed more than 6,300 people in West Africa.
- As soon as the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a vaccine, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, will provide up to $300 million to buy vaccines for the hardest hit countries, which include Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
- Although there is currently no approved Ebola vaccine, there are several that are being tested, including a vaccine being co-developed by GSK and the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) that is viewed as a top contender.
Dive Insight:
The Ebola outbreak and the impact that it is having on human lives in the most severely afflicted African countries qualifies as a humanitarian crisis. As such, pharmaceutical companies worldwide, as well as the U.S. government and international donor agencies, are pitching in to help address the problem.
Gavi won't just use the funding be used to buy and distribute the vaccine to those at risk in cities and remote villages; they will also use the money to help restore health care systems that have been decimated by the demands of treating so many sick people and preventing infectious transmission of Ebola when a patient dies.