DR Congo's health minister Oly Ilunga speaks at a press conference following a meeting on the Ebola crisis at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 15, 2019. /VCG Photo
The Democratic Republic of Congo's health minister resigned on Monday, citing his removal as the head of his country's Ebola response and concerns over a proposed "experiment" with a new, unlicensed vaccine.
"As a result of your decision to place the response to the Ebola outbreak under your direct supervision... I hereby submit my resignation as health minister," Oly Ilunga wrote in a resignation letter to President Felix Tshisekedi.
"As in any war, because that is what this is, there cannot be several centers of decision-making for risk of creating confusion," said the letter.
Ilunga also objected to plans to introduce a second vaccine to the country's fight against the highly-infectious hemorrhagic virus disease, which has already killed more than 1,700 people.
Nearly 170,000 people have been given an Ebola vaccine manufactured by German pharma giant Merck since the outbreak started in DR Congo a year ago.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been pushing for the introduction of a second vaccine produced by a subsidiary of U.S. company Johnson & Johnson, but the health ministry under Ilunga has resisted such a move, citing the risks of introducing a new product in communities where mistrust of Ebola responders is already high.
Health workers communicate information about Ebola at an Ebola screening station on the road between Butembo and Goma, in DR Congo, July 16, 2019. /VCG Photo
The Merck vaccine is tested but unlicensed, while the second drug is still in the trial investigation stage.
"Strong pressure has been exerted for several months to roll out a new experiment in the DR Congo," wrote Ilunga, a medical doctor.
"It would be unrealistic to believe that the new vaccine, proposed by actors who have demonstrated a clear lack of ethics by voluntarily hiding important information from health authorities, could have a decisive impact on the control of the epidemic," he added.
Tshisekedi on Saturday replaced Ilunga as the head of the country's response to the latest Ebola epidemic. The presidency announced that coordination of the anti-Ebola campaign would now fall under Tshisekedi's direct supervision.
This came shortly after the WHO gave the outbreak the high-alert status of "public health emergency of international concern."
Reporting to Tshisekedi would be Jean-Jacques Muyambe Tamfum, director of the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, DR Congo's capital, and a member of the team that investigated the first known Ebola outbreak in then-Zaire in 1976.
Since August last year, Ebola has infected more than 2,500 people in DR Congo. It is the second-biggest epidemic since more than 11,300 people died in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016.