Ebola Shots Donated by Merck to Be Tested on Vaccine-Resistant Strain
Doctors inside an isolation center together with suspected Ebola patients in Mubende, Uganda on Oct. 27.
Photographer: Badru Katumba/AFP/Getty Images
Ebola vaccine that Merck & Co. donated to an international immunization group will be part of a trial testing three shots against a resistant strain of the deadly virus that’s spreading in Uganda.
The vaccine, now licensed to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York, was recommended for testing alongside experimental shots from the Washington-based Sabin Vaccine Institute and the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, the World Health Organization said Wednesday in a statement. The worldwide health agency will run the trial in cooperation with Uganda’s Ministry of Health, which accepted the WHO recommendation.