London — The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday its experts have not yet decided whether to use newly developed vaccines to try to contain an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but officials are making preparations just in case. A second case of Ebola in DRC was confirmed by the WHO on Sunday after an outbreak this week of 17 other suspected cases. Three people have so far died among the 19 suspected and confirmed cases. A spokesman for the Geneva-based UN health agency said the WHO was working with specialists to conduct an epidemiological investigation "to better understand the extent of the current outbreak" and to establish who is at risk of becoming infected with Ebola. The GAVI global vaccine alliance said on Friday that about 300,000 emergency doses of an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck could be available in case of a large-scale outbreak, but it was up to the WHO and others to determine "if and when deployment of vaccine into this outbr...
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