The Ugandan Ministry of Health said today, Tuesday, that the Ebola vaccine produced by Canada is effective against the new strain of Ebola, according to local media.

Increase in Ebola virus deaths

The ministry explained that the Ebola virus outbreak in Uganda has resulted in the death of at least 48 people since it was announced in September 2022, and the number of cases continues to rise.

Researchers at the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg discovered a suitable candidate vaccine in the first decade of the 21st century that becomes effective against the new Sudanese strain.

The Canadian vaccine is effective against the Sudanese strain

The Canadian Microbiology Laboratory discovered something promising, as the vaccine in the early 21st century remained undeveloped again due to the lack of a private pharmaceutical company looking to profit from a new product, an unlikely prospect for a vaccine targeting a disease that until then only affected communities in remote areas of Central Africa.

The Ministry of Health pointed out that after clinical trials largely funded by governments and charities, the Canadian Zaire Ebola vaccine became the first approved Ebola vaccine, since then it has been proven to be 97% more effective during outbreaks, and it is now an important tool that has helped prevent subsequent disease outbreaks from spreading out of control, but it took the deaths of thousands of people during the West Africa outbreak to achieve this, nearly a decade after the vaccine was first discovered.