Roadmap for introduction and roll‐out of Merck rVSV‐ZEBOV Ebola Virus Disease vaccine in African countries

Revised working paper following AVAREF meeting February 2019. WHO has published a roadmap aiming to coordinate partners’ actions and contributions to the licensing and roll-out of Merck’s Ebola vaccine (VSV-ZEBOV) in African countries. The vaccine was developed during the West Africa Ebola epidemic of 2014-2016, during which more than 11 000 people lost their lives to the disease. The vaccine was tested in European and African countries at the time and is currently used under an “expanded access” protocol in the Democratic Republic of Congo. WHO will expedite prequalification and licensing of the vaccine for use in countries at risk of Ebola outbreaks and will coordinate work between those countries’ regulatory authorities and the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration.