The African state of Uganda has just launched an Ebola “vaccine” trial for the Sudan variant. The first phase of the clinical program involves “vaccinating” the contacts of a nurse who died in the latest outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Ugandan Health Ministry reported on Thursday that a 32-year-old male nurse died at a hospital in Kampala after experiencing multiple organ failure due to the highly contagious virus. According to a report by the BBC, forty contacts of the first victim of this outbreak will be vaccinated in this phase of the roll-out jointly conducted with the Ugandan authorities and the WHO, the United Nations agency said in a statement on Monday.

Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a viral infection transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and internal or external bleeding. Ebola disease is caused by an infection with an ortho-ebolavirus and can cause serious and often deadly disease, with a mortality rate as high as 80 to 90 percent, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website. 

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In a press release on Monday, the WHO said the vaccine developed by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a New York-based non-profit research firm, has been administered to the first clinical study participants in Uganda, according to a report by RT.

Uganda’s Health Ministry is partnering with the WHO and other groups on the vaccination program, which targets health workers and people who have been exposed to the virus. According to the global health organization, 40 contacts of the first victim of the outbreak will be vaccinated during the current phase of the rollout. –RT

“This is a critical achievement towards better pandemic preparedness and saving lives when outbreaks occur,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“If proven effective, the vaccine will further strengthen measures to protect communities from future outbreaks,” WHO director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, also wrote on X on Monday.