Opinion: Another Ebola outbreak, another missed opportunity for preparedness
When I learned that an outbreak of Ebola was declared in Uganda last fall, I had a flashback to 2014 when I was working at Merck and an outbreak of Ebola disease caused by a different species of the virus emerged in full force in West Africa.
At the time, doses of a candidate vaccine against the virus circulating in West Africa had been developed and were in Merck’s freezers. In a collaboration with many external partners, we managed to test the vaccine in West Africa in a so-called ring vaccination trial: We identified individuals who likely had Ebola disease, then identified their contacts and their contacts’ contacts — establishing a social contact ring, or network — and offered the vaccine to individuals at greatest risk of exposure.
