Committee: World Health Organization
Topic: Ebola
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has recently become one of the most recognized and feared diseases ever since the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic that brought disaster to the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where over 28,000 people were infected with ebola. Then, in 2018, Ebola struck in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This horrid disease has claimed the lives of over 11,000 people. On September 19th of 2014, the United Nations launched its first-ever world health emergency, which aided the countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Ukraine supports the decision of European regulators to start the process of producing the Ebola vaccine, which will help end this disease once and for all. Not only does Ukraine believe that a vaccine should be dispersed, but education about this disease is necessary.
While there have been no cases of Ebola in Ukraine, there have been outbreaks of other diseases, such as measles. During the measles outbreak of 2017, more than 15,000 people in Ukraine contracted measles. Measles is a disease that can easily be prevented by a simple vaccine, yet only 79% of infants were vaccinated. Ukraine could have easily avoided this by using the vaccine available, yet many parents and grandparents chose not to have their children vaccinated. Ukraine believes that an Ebola vaccine is vital to curing and preventing this disease. The vaccine, VSV-EBOV, is fast, safe, and efficacious. This vaccine is the only vaccine to complete a phase 3 clinical trial. This vaccine needs to be distributed to countries that are affected by the Ebola epidemic. Not only is prevention important, but education about the disease is also necessary. Teaching people about how the virus is spread and how to take cautionary measures will help prevent people from developing an increased risk of being infected by Ebola.
Ukraine knows how vaccines can be helpful, and strongly believes that the best way to end the Ebola epidemic is to provide not only vaccines but also to provide education to the people of the affected areas. If even a fraction of countries were to donate money to the funding of this vaccine, then thousands of lives would be saved.
- Libby Kurt
