Five years ago, an Ebola outbreak ripped through West Africa, killing over 11,000 people. During the 2014 outbreak, no effective vaccines or treatments were available while the international community's response was often perceived as too reactive.
In 2018, Ebola struck again in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and it has claimed over 1,800 lives since then. However, this time the situation is different. Now we have a life-saving innovation at our disposal — an experimental vaccine.
So why is this latest outbreak still proving so difficult to control? The answer is complicated, and touches upon the many challenges in delivering such critical and timely health care to those most in need.
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