Experimental Ebola Vaccine Administered as Deaths Mount in Mbandaka

UN health agency workers administered an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus on May 22 to dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the number of deaths from the outbreak rose to 27.

World Health Organization workers were the first to be vaccinated against the Ebola virus on May 21, before the programme was expanded to those who may have had contact with infected patients.

This footage shows the vaccine being administered to 33 people in Wangata, Mbandaka, where a further death from the virus was announced on May 22.

The UN World Health Organization plans to immunize many of the people thought to have been in contact with recently confirmed patients.

The UN said 7,500 doses of the vaccine were delivered to DRC. The DRC minister of health was quoted in the Guardian saying about 600 people would initially be given the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, including “health staff, the contacts of the sick and the contacts of the contacts." Credit: WHO via Storyful