Hohoe Paramount Chief welcomes Ebola vaccine trial in his town

The Paramount Chief of Gbi Traditional Area, Togbe Gabusu, says his Chiefs in Hohoe support the much talked about Ebola vaccine trial to be held in the municipality.

According to Togbe Gabusu the Chiefs of Hohoe in the Volta Region are not against the exercise, considering that there have been a National Research Centre in Hohoe for over the past 30 years.

The Paramount Chief wondered why the Ebola vaccine trial should generate so much controversy.

“I have never doubted this because when they [Researchers] came, they called all the traditional heads. They met us talked to us and we were satisfied before the hullabaloo came. We have a Research Centre in town here, it has been here for [many] years...and they have been working. So why this?”, the Paramount Chief wondered.

Togbe Gabusu was speaking on the sidelines of a public forum held in Hohoe to sensitize the people on the vaccine trial which has been put on hold as a result of concerns raised by a section of the public and by Parliamentarians.

Meanwhile some residents who spoke to Joy News expressed confidence in the exercise and admitted that the intensified public education on the subject has helped in allaying their initial fear and have changed their opinions.

''Presently the explanations given here, questions and answers, have actually cleared our minds and the nation must be ready, society must be ready to accept that there is nothing evil about it”, Rev JJ Komla Tulasi of Evangelical Presbyterian Church , Hohoe, said.

The forum organized by the University of Health and Allied Sciences sought to dispel erroneous impressions about the vaccine trial.

Prof. Fred Binka, Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, who is the lead Scientist for the trial further stressed that a vaccine does not introduce the disease to the human body but rather a protection against the deadly disease.