LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - A global stockpile of Ebola

vaccines can be used to protect frontline health workers in

high-risk countries routinely, rather than just as an emergency

measure during outbreaks, international vaccine group Gavi said

on Thursday.

A stockpile of half-a-million Ebola vaccine doses was

established by Gavi and other global health partners in 2019 for

use in outbreaks of the haemorrhagic fever, which has an average

fatality rate of roughly 60%. Around 11,000 people died in a

2014-16 outbreak in West Africa, the largest ever.

But while highly deadly, outbreaks of Ebola are relatively

rare. Around 208,000 doses of the stockpiled Ervebo vaccine,

made by Merck ( MRK ), are set to expire this year if unused.

Some countries have already had doses shipped to them for

preventative campaigns, including Democratic Republic of Congo

and Uganda. Now Gavi says it will fund this use routinely for

high-risk countries, including transport and vaccination costs,

after the World Health Organization last month recommended using

Ervebo in this way.

The WHO also backed preventative use for high-risk groups of

the other Ebola vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) with a

booster dose made by Bavarian Nordic ( BVNKF ). This vaccine is not

currently held in the stockpile. Both vaccines target the Ebola

Zaire strain of the virus, rather than the Sudan strain that

caused an outbreak in Uganda in 2022.

Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar said the stockpile had

already helped cut down Ebola cases and deaths during outbreaks

and could now protect those at highest risk from this "terrible

disease that can lay waste to whole communities".

Gavi also said that it would support lower-income countries

to add a number of other vaccines in their routine programmes.

These included introducing a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine

at birth, a new vaccine protecting against five strains of

meningococcal meningitis, and the use of the rabies vaccine for

protection post-exposure. The plans, including for preventative

Ebola vaccination, were all signed off by Gavi's board before

COVID-19 but delayed by the pandemic and other factors.