The race to make new Ebola vaccines faces a cash crunch

A rapidly growing outbreak of Ebola in Africa has prompted efforts to develop new vaccines against the virus. The outbreak, which was declared in mid-May, has spread from three health zones to 60, with 6,250 cases, including 3,039 deaths, according to government data. This outbreak has recorded six times as many confirmed cases and five times as many deaths as the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, which had over 11,000 deaths, the Africa CDC said.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak has likely not yet peaked. Authorities in eastern Congo are shifting to a village-centered approach to fight the outbreak, as the virus continues to spread faster than efforts to track and contain it. The response to the outbreak is still falling short in several areas, including limited community-based surveillance systems, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The organization spearheading the effort to develop new Ebola vaccines is low on funds, according to Endpoints News. The financial reality poses a challenge to the development of new vaccines against the virus.

Brief written by urgent.news from Endpoints News, Associated Press, Winnipeg Free Press — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.