Ebola is one of the most feared infectious diseases, with more than half of those infected dying. A vaccine has now been shown to cut that mortality rate in half.
Janine Kibwana, Ebola survivor and mother of five, sits in her living room in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers studying the DRC's most recent Ebola outbreak say that a new vaccine can dramatically reduce the risk of dying from the disease.Janine Kibwana, Ebola survivor and mother of five, sits in her living room in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"When I first started working in Ebola, we had little more than palliative care to offer patients," says, an epidemiologist with Epicentre, the medical research arm of Doctors Without Borders."I think Ebola is a really cruel disease because the very moment when you want to care for someone who you love is the moment when you shouldn't touch them." That's because people are infectious once they develop symptoms.
"Every single Ebola health facility across the entire Ebola epidemic had a standardized, harmonized and compiled list of all admissions," says Coulborn. This list included 2,279 confirmed Ebola patients, and it recorded whether or not each person had been vaccinated before they got sick — and if so, when they'd received the vaccine. Coulborn then compared how those two groups fared. The result was striking.
"So while getting vaccinated as early as possible is the most beneficial," explains Coulborn,"we now know that vaccination is better late than never."
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