New Ebola Vaccine Trial Results Offer Hope

Friday, December 23, 2016

A new Ebola vaccine may be the first to successfully protect against one of the world’s most lethal pathogens, according to a trial involving over 11,000 participants in Guinea.

The results of the trial – which was led by the World Health Organization together with Guinea’s Ministry of Health, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and other international organisations – were published in British Medical Journal The Lancet Thursday evening.

“Ebola left a devastating legacy in our country,”said Dr KeÏta Sakoba, Coordinator of the Ebola Response and Director of the National Agency for Health Security in Guinea. “We are proud that we have been able to contribute to developing a vaccine that will prevent other nations from enduring what we endured.”

Alongside Liberia and Sierra Leone, Guinea was one of the three West African countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak of 2013 to 2016, which killed more than 11,000 people.

The vaccine was trialled in Basse-Guinée in Western Guinea beginning in 2015 when the disease was still occurring in the region. Of the over 5,800 people who received the vaccine, none were recorded as having Ebola 10 days or more after vaccination. By comparison, among those who did not receive the vaccine, 23 cases of Ebola were recorded.

Source: IPS news (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care
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infectious diseases, public health, vaccines