Ebola Virus Vaccine Cure Shows Good Results

Experimental Ebola vaccine tested on human volunteers at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reportedly triggered robust immune response without feared side-effects like arthritis, according to NBC News. After early phase trials on limited population in the U.S. and Europe, the vaccine has been shipped to West Africa for large scale trials.     

The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 10,000 people among 25,000 reported cases in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The vaccine VSV-ZEBOV used in the trial was developed at the Public Health Agency of Canada and was licensed to NewLink Genetics Corp. and then to Merck & Co Inc., reported Reuters.           

The vaccine VSV-ZEBOV contains cattle virus called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) engineered to carry Ebola genes which produce proteins that would trigger an immune response against the virus inside the body. The anti-Ebola antibodies produced would immunize the individual against the Ebola virus in case of exposure.

The vaccine was tested among 40 human volunteers in the U.S. at the National Institutes of Health and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The participants were given either two doses of mild vaccine or a single injection of saline. All the participants involved in the trial were observed to have produced anti-Ebola antibodies within 28 days of vaccination.

"The most common side effects were injection site pain and transient fever that appeared and resolved within 12 to 36 hours after vaccination," said NIAID.

Since the vaccine carried live VSV in them, 30 percent of the participants suffered mild to moderate fever. However, the researchers noted that it was an expected thing to happen. Walter Reed's Col. Stephen Thomas, the study's lead, said that "We saw a robust immune response following a single dose of the vaccine, which could be particularly useful in outbreak interventions," reported NBC news.

In the trials in Gabon, Germany, Kenya, and Switzerland, about 158 volunteers were given five different doses of VSV-ZEBOV vaccine. 11 among 58 participants reported arthritis-like pain in the study in Geneva, Switzerland whereas 150 participants in the total of 158 produced high amount of Ebola antibodies in response to high doses of vaccine.

"The outbreak is slowly coming under control, thanks to extraordinary and multi-faceted efforts in the affected nations. However, there still are no licensed specific therapies or vaccines for Ebola. Until a safe and effective vaccine is available, the world will continue to be under-prepared for the next Ebola outbreak," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads NIAID, reported NBC news.