Barely a month after the World Health Organization (WHO) hinted on a possible Ebola vaccine, Director of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Peter Piot, disclosed in Sierra Leone that a new vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus disease, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Sierra Leoneans, will be available in March, 2015.

He revealed this at a press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications. Professor Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus while working at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium, said they were in the country to acquire first-hand information about the disease, and engage in more research for developing an Ebola vaccine.

“Since the first outbreak in 1976 in Congo, we have not been able to develop any effective cure for it. But we will make sure not to miss this opportunity to develop a vaccine that will be first implemented here in February or March 2015,” he said.

Professor Piot, who is also a member of the Board of the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund in Tokyo and of the Oxford Martin Commission on Future Generations, admitted that the current outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented. However, he also maintained optimism that the outbreak would end soon as long as social mobilization is intensified and sustained. He also said that the disease would not be over in Sierra Leone until it finishes in Liberia and Guinea.

“I am urging the authorities in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to intensify prevention controls,” said Professor Piot.

The Ebola scourge continues to be a source of global concern drawing attention and significant support from the international community. President Jim Kim of the World Bank had recently visited the West African region in order to empirically assess the remediation efforts and offer more support. He pledged to not stop until the total number of Ebola patients gets to zero.

The WHO’s latest revision of the death toll estimates from the Ebola disease has been put at 7518, thus signifying the need for more concerted efforts in curbing the killer disease.

By Emmanuel Iruobe

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