Ebola Vaccine: 100% Effective

A global team of physicians emphasized the fact that a $2 billion dollars global vaccine fundraising strategy could prevent future Ebola eruptions and other similar lethal diseases.

Ebola is a deadly disease in humans and primates (mostly monkeys and chimpanzees) caused by the Ebola virus. Symptoms include high fever and severe internal bleeding. It can be spread from person to person, but it is roughly limited to Africa.

Statistics show that for more than a year and a half three of the poorest African countries have struggled with the Ebola epidemic – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), the scientific circle involved in this particular matter, reported that in the case of a new outbreak, the vaccine could be put to use to stop the eruption as soon as possible, to not witness the disastrous consequences present nowadays.

The newly developed vaccine, entitled VSV-EBOV, is highly effective, according to recently conducted tests. A single dose is sufficient to protect a person  in enhancing their immune system.

It should be mentioned that people who were immediately administered the vaccine have not contracted the virus.

Ring vaccination means administering doses of vaccine exclusively to people in close contact with an isolated, infected patient. It prevents the wide distribution of a highly infectious disease, by surrounding the patient with a “ring of immunization.”

Health authorities in Guinea conducted tests involving 7.651 people to see whether the virus-based vaccine is truly efficient or not. The vaccine’s composition implicated a certain glycoprotein (i. e. a conjugated protein having a carbohydrate component) of Ebola.

Prof. Røttingen, from the University of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, Division of Infectious Disease Control, reported that their particular strategy helped them to track the dispersed epidemic in Guinea, and would provide a path to continue this as a public health intervention, in trial mode.

50 per cent of the participants were administered the vaccine three weeks after the identification of an infected person. Moreover, all at risk patients would receive immediate vaccination, while Guinean health authorities and committees approved the continuation of the study, so that further evidence concerning the efficacy and safety of the vaccine can be achieved.

Furthermore, the next phase would concentrate on proving group immunity for protecting entire human masses, entire populations.

The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders will take course of action in conducting a trial of the same vaccine on front line workers, who interact directly with infected patients.

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