GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sept 21 (Reuters) -H ealth authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo said onSaturday that they plan to introduce a second Ebola vaccine,manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, to counter thesecond-worst outbreak of the virus in history.
The team overseeing Congo's Ebola response did not say whenexactly the J&J vaccine would be introduced. It will complementanother vaccine manufactured by Merck, which has beenadministered to more than 225,000 people since August 2018.
The J&J vaccine has been a source of controversy amongCongolese health officials. The former health minister, who wasstripped of oversight of the Ebola response in July, opposed itsuse, saying it had not been proven safe or effective.
But in a statement, the current Ebola response team said thevaccine was safe and noted that it was already being trialled inneighbouring Uganda and in the West African country of Guinea.
"It is a vaccine that other countries already use. Why can'twe use it in Congo to protect our population?" the statementsaid.
The statement said health officials intended to start byoffering the J&J vaccine to Congolese traders who cross intoRwanda and then to residents of the province neighbouring theepicentre of the outbreak "to create a corridor of immunisedpeople".
The J&J vaccine requires two injections eight weeks apart,unlike the Merck vaccine, which requires a single shot.
The current Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,100 peoplesince the middle of last year, second only to the 2013-16outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,300.
(Reporting by Fiston Mahamba; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing byGiles Elgood)