The serum used was found to be 100% effective only a week after more than 7,500 people were vaccinated according to the results published by The Lancet Medical Journal.
Advertisement
An Ebola vaccine provided 100-percent protection in a field trial in hard-hit Guinea, researchers and officials said Friday, mooting “the beginning of the end” of the killer West African outbreak.
“We have nobody in the 2,000 or so people who have been vaccinated (early) who have had an Ebola (diagnosis) 10 days after the vaccination”.
The vaccines study has been a collaborative effort between the health authorities in Guinea, the World Health Organization, the Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The investigators are also still assessing its safety, noting that there have been just 43 adverse events in the Phase III study so far.
The study shows that the new vaccine, known as VSV-ZEBOV, “may help finally extinguish this [Ebola] outbreak”, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Health Security.
Ebola has killed over 11,000 people in West Africa in the past year in the world’s biggest ever outbreak of the disease.
GSK hopes also hopes to test its vaccine in Guinea, although WHO vaccine expert Marie Paule Kieny said this might not be possible, given the dwindling number of Ebola cases.
“Indeed, no vaccinee developed symptoms more than six days after vaccination, irrespective of whether vaccination was immediate or delayed”, said the study paper.
Trial data will now go to regulatory agencies to obtain a license for the vaccine which will allow it to be developed in bulk for future Ebola epidemics. “Having seen the devastating effects of Ebola on communities and even whole countries with my own eyes, I am very encouraged by today’s news”, said Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Børge Brende, who spearheaded a million global funding pledge to fight Ebola.
Researchers will begin another trial soon on another vaccination for Ebola.
The announcement did not set a timetable for when the Ebola vaccine would become available in North America, however it has been suggested that the vaccine be fast-tracked to at least help those most in need. While the incidence has fallen off sharply, it has not been eradicated, with seven confirmed cases in the week of July 29.
Advertisement
“Until now, 50 percent of the rings were vaccinated three weeks after the identification of an infected patient to provide a term of comparison with rings that were vaccinated immediately”, the release explains.
