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More than 20,000 doses of an experimental vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola could be manufactured by India’s Serum Institute and used in trials to see if it can work to deal with the current outbreak in Uganda, the Reuters news agency reports quoting a source at the company.

Vaccines have been deployed against the Zaire strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but there is no proven effective vaccine against the Sudan strain.

Nineteen people have died so far and there have been 54 recorded cases since the outbreak began last month.

At the weekend, President Yoweri Museveni imposed a lockdown on two districts at the centre of the outbreak.

"These are temporary measures to control the spread of Ebola," he said in a televised address.

Researchers at Oxford University are working with the Serum Institute – the world’s largest vaccine maker – to see if their experimental vaccine, which appears to work in early trials, could now be manufactured, Reuters reports.

There has been some frustration over funding shortages for the vaccine development, the news agency adds.