Ebola vaccine test to go ahead in the North West region

An experimental vaccine test for Ebola in Cameroon will be injected to 400 people of whom 200 will be from Bamenda and another 200 in Yaounde. According to the Minister of Public Health Mama Andre Fouda, Cameroon was selected alongside Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana because of its strategic location in the sub region. He further explained that the vaccine does not contain any virus which can lead to infection noting that the concern persons will be injected with the Ebola virus which however has no guarantee they will be prevented from being infected. The Minister made the declaration October 30 in Yaoundé.

A civil society activist, Betrand Mvogo has condemned the move which is expected to run from October 2015 to October 2016. In a petition to the Head of State, he regretted that Cameroonians are not Guinea pigs and for the State to accept such a thing was putting citizens at a high risk considering that the disease claimed more than 11.000 lives in some six West African countries. Mr. Mvogo further in his open letter to President Biya urged him to seek medical advice from renowned medical practitioners in the country saying if the vaccine trial fails it will fall back negatively on Cameroonians.

Reacting to these worries, Mama Fouda explained that the virus which will be imported into the country had earlier been experimented in Britain, America and Switzerland with positive results and that the dangers of the trail being a failure in the country was a far fetched dream. The experiment to be carried out by the Centre Pasteur in Yaounde and the Regional Hospital in Bamenda will have the blessings from the National Health Institute of America, GSK firm and Glaxo Smith Kline will need 3000 volunteers.