Inside STAT: Vaccine in hand, Ebola response team struggles to track those who need it

NURSES WORKING WITH THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION PREPARED TO ADMINISTER EBOLA VACCINES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO IN MAY. (UNIOR D. KANNAH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

The Ebola response team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is having more and more trouble keeping track of where the virus is spreading. More than half of recent cases are people who weren't on the list of contacts of previous Ebola patients. And efforts to look back and pinpoint how those people contracted the virus are increasingly failing. That threatens efforts to contain the virus — and undermines how effective an experimental Ebola vaccine being used there can be. The vaccination strategy relies on knowing who was exposed to Ebola, so they and their contacts can be vaccinated. As one expert put it, the vaccine "can't be given to people you don't know exist." STAT's Helen Branswell has the story here.