STORY: Uganda starts Ebola vaccination
SHOOTING TIME: Feb. 3, 2025
DATELINE: Feb. 4, 2025
LENGTH: 00:02:15
LOCATION: Kampala
CATEGORY: HEALTH

SHOTLIST:
1. various of medical personnel preparing for the vaccination
2. various of the Ebola trial vaccination
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): BRUCE KIRENGA, Principal Investigator of Ebola Trial Vaccine
4. various of the Ebola trial vaccination
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): DANIEL KYABAYINZE, Director of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Uganda
6. various of the Ebola trial vaccination
7. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): MICHAEL RYAN, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme
8. various of the Ebola trial vaccination

STORYLINE:

Uganda launched a vaccination campaign on Monday to stop the spread of the Sudan Ebola virus disease (SVD), which has so far killed one health worker and left two people hospitalized.

Health workers at Mulago National Referral Hospital in the national capital of Kampala and Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in the eastern city of Mbale will be the first to receive the vaccine, which is in a trial stage, according to the country's Ministry of Health. Family members who got into contact with the index case, the health worker who died on Jan. 29, will also receive the doses.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): BRUCE KIRENGA, Principal Investigator of Ebola Trial Vaccine
"We are targeting people who are high risk, those are people who have gotten in contact with the cases that we have confirmed in the country. The vaccine is being given under a clinical trial using a trial vaccine and the participants who are the contacts they have to consent to participate."

According to the Ministry of Health, as of Monday, 234 people have been identified as contacts of the index case and are being monitored.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): DANIEL KYABAYINZE, Director of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Uganda
"There is no vaccine for this particular strain, the Sudan strain. So, we are using the opportunity as a measure of having enough evidence that the vaccine will be effective in the future, and we want to thank those who have volunteered. It's not for the general public to come and get the vaccine."

There are no approved treatments or vaccines for the SVD, but early initiation of supportive treatment has been shown to significantly reduce deaths from the infection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO has donated 2,160 doses of the Ebola trial vaccine to Uganda to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine in combating the SVD, the eighth outbreak of the deadly disease in the country.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): MICHAEL RYAN, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme
"We hope that this vaccine will help here too in ending the outbreak, and we hope that the data and the information and the knowledge that is generated from this will generate a solution for the world. So, we should celebrate Uganda today; we should celebrate Ugandan science; we should celebrate Ugandan leadership and the world, as we forge a path for the future of knowledge and health protection for the peoples all around the world."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kampala.
(XHTV)