WHO to send Ebola vaccines to Guinea

DAKAR, Senegal

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that it will send thousands of doses of an Ebola vaccine to the West African country of Guinea to fight a new outbreak of the disease.

Speaking at a virtual press conference, WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said the first 11,000 doses of the vaccine and at least 100 experts are expected to arrive in Guinea on Sunday.

Saying that the vaccination program will start on Feb. 22, Moeti also noted that the WHO is trying secure an additional 8,600 doses of the vaccine from the US.

Guinea was one of the three most-affected countries in the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which was the largest since the virus was first discovered in 1976.

The disease caused global alarm in 2014, when the world's worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,300 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ebola, a tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is transmitted to humans from wild animals.

*Writing by Ahmet Gencturk

DAKAR, Senegal

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that it will send thousands of doses of an Ebola vaccine to the West African country of Guinea to fight a new outbreak of the disease.

Saying that the vaccination program will start on Feb. 22, Moeti also noted that the WHO is trying secure an additional 8,600 doses of the vaccine from the US.

Guinea was one of the three most-affected countries in the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which was the largest since the virus was first discovered in 1976.

Ebola, a tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is transmitted to humans from wild animals.

*Writing by Ahmet Gencturk