Ebola vaccine candidates to be shipped to Uganda: WHO

Three Ebola vaccine candidates for a planned clinical trial are expected to be shipped to Uganda next week, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

The candidates include vaccines under development by the University of Oxford and Serum Institute of India, Sabin Vaccine Institute, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and Merck & Co.

WHO's committee of external experts has evaluated and agreed to include all three vaccine candidates in the planned trial, Tedros said.

The virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain that spread during recent outbreaks in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The WHO did not disclose details about the number of doses expected to be shipped or used in the planned trial.

Tedros said the expert committee had selected two investigational therapeutics for ­Ebola and a planned trial design, which was being submitted for approval.

With six more Ebola cases and two deaths confirmed in Uganda in the last week, the ­total number is now at 141 ­cases and 55 deaths.