Breakthrough in the development of an Ebola vaccine?

Extensive testing for Ebola vaccine could begin earlier this year

27/11/2014

For almost a year now, the deadly Ebola virus has spread in West Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far recorded 15,935 Ebola cases, 5,689 people died. That's why scientists around the world are researching a vaccine against the infectious disease. US scientists reported a first success. A vaccine had been successfully tested in 20 healthy study participants.

All subjects developed antibodies through the Ebola vaccine
There is new hope in the fight against the Ebola epidemic. An experimental vaccine caused test subjects to develop antibodies in the blood, as reported by the National Health Institutes of the United States (NIH). It could take a few more months for the vaccine to be used extensively.

The vaccine called ChAd3 was developed by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the USA in cooperation with the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. The researchers started in September with the first test. For each subject who received the vaccine, antibodies in the blood could be detected within four weeks. The strength of "the antibody was dependent on the vaccine dose: the higher the dose, the stronger the antibodies".

Comprehensive test phases necessary for testing the vaccine in the fight against Ebola
„The unprecedented scale of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has intensified efforts to develop safe and effective vaccines that could potentially help stop the epidemic and that are certainly crucial in preventing large outbreaks in the future“, said Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, in a press release from the institute.

Only "two out of the 20 study participants aged 18 to 50 had adverse side effects in the form of a mild fever" that occurred on the day of vaccination, the NIAID reports. Previously, the vaccine was already successfully tested in monkeys. Tests on humans should actually have been carried out at a later date, but they were preferred because of the Ebola epidemic. „Based on these positive results from the first human study of this unapproved vaccine, we continue our accelerated plan for more extensive testing to see if the vaccine can actually prevent Ebola infection, "Fauci said Representatives in Liberia and „other partners. "However, the tests should begin at the earliest beginning of 2015.

Federal Government introduces aircraft with special isolation station for Ebola patients
The White House spoke of „promising results“. President Barack Obama plans to visit the NIH next week.

As the Foreign Office announces, "the German government wants the new Medevac aircraft today „Robert Koch "on the military part of the airport Berlin-Tegel." The converted Lufthansa Airbus has over „a special special isolation unit where highly infectious patients from infection areas, such as the Ebola-affected region in West Africa, can be flown out and treated“, so the Foreign Office. (Ag)