September 8, 2014
Human trials of a vaccine being developed against the Ebola virus commenced last week in the United States and will eventually extend to the United Kingdom and then to Mali and the Gambia. The first patient, a 39-year-old woman, was given the vaccine last week as human trials got under way.
The viral vaccine does not replicate inside the body, but it is hoped the immune system will react to the Ebola component of the vaccine and thence develop immunity.
The WHO said safety data would be ready by November 2014 and, if the vaccine proved safe, it would immediately be deployed for use in West Africa. Healthcare workers and other frontline staff would then be prioritised for vaccination.
The vaccine is being jointly developed by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. The experiments by the US National Institutes of Health showed immunity could last at least 10 months.
Animal research, on which the decision to begin human trials was based, shows that four crab-eating macaques all survived what would have been a fatal dose of Ebola virus five weeks after being vaccinated with this experimental vaccine. However, only half survived an infection 10 months after immunisation, leading to speculation that this vaccine may require booster doses in the months following initial administration.
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