The Gavi coalition boosts the global stockpile of Ebola vaccines

The global emergency stockpile of Ebola vaccine will grow to 500,000 doses, the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, decided yesterday. The organization had previously planned on 300,000 doses but progress against the current outbreak seemed to indicate that that supply would soon run out. Already, some 255,000 doses have been administered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the outbreak has raged since August 2018. Low- and middle-income countries will be able to access doses of the vaccine for free, and although high-income countries can also access the supplies, they will have to pay for them. Gavi’s board also agreed to support targeted preventive vaccination of key front-line health workers in countries at risk of Ebola outbreaks, although the details of that campaign haven’t been worked out.