Uganda’s health minister said on Tuesday that health workers have now been authorised to use three experimental Ebola treatments in the country, a week after the deadly disease spread over the border from Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Happy to inform you all that we got clearance from both Uganda National Council for Science and Technology and National Drug Authority to bring in the Therapeutic treatment for #Ebola patients in the country,” Uganda’s Health Minister, Jane Ruth Aceng, said on Twitter.
The treatments approved for shipment to Uganda were Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s ZMapp, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc’s Regeneron and Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences , said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.
“ This is the first confirmed case in Uganda during the Ebola outbreak on-going in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. ”
“The protocols for the fourth being submitted. Logistics underway with MSF support for importation of a few courses about 10 each,” he added in an email.
The U.N. health agency has said there have so far been no known cases of Ebola spreading between people in Uganda, all recorded patients had travelled in from Congo.
Four experimental therapeutic treatments are already being used in Congo, it added.
Health workers and people who came in contact with infected people began receiving a Merck experimental vaccine in Uganda on Saturday.