HEALTH-EBOLA/VACCINE-FILE WHO say initial results from Ebola vaccine trial promising

Record ID: 145526

  • Title: HEALTH-EBOLA/VACCINE-FILE WHO say initial results from Ebola vaccine trial promising
  • Date: 31st July 2015
  • Summary: MONROVIA, LIBERIA (AUGUST 1, 2014) (REUTERS) WOMAN WASHING HANDS NEXT TO CONTAINER WITH LABEL READING (English): "EBOLA VIRUS, HOW TO PREVENT IT FROM SPREADING" PEOPLE WASHING HANDS WITH CHLORINATED WATER FROM CONTAINER PERSON TURNING OFF TAP
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Liberia
  • Country: Liberia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5M25GKR9R1JQUFXJZ822ZKNRK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against Ebola, the World Health Organization said on Friday (July 31), as a trial in Guinea found a vaccine to have been 100 percent effective.
    The results so far had been very promising, World Health Organization assistant director general Marie-Paule Kieny told a news conference in Geneva.
    "The data so far - and it's as I said, an intermediary analysis and the trial is going on - but the data so far, shows that none of the 2,014 persons vaccinated developed Ebola virus disease after 10 days after vaccination," she said.
    "So we hope that by continuing the trial with these modifications, with doing all the vaccination immediately and also including younger people, we will be able to assist the Ebola response team, bringing Ebola transmission to zero in Guinea," she added.
    The vaccine could now be used to help end the worst recorded outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa since it began in December 2013.
    World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan said at another news conference on Friday that if proven effective, this could be a game changer.
    "It will change the management of the current Ebola outbreak and future outbreaks," Chan said.
    This and other vaccine trials were fast-tracked with huge international effort as researchers raced to test potential therapies and vaccines while the virus was still circulating.
    The Guinea trial began on March 23 to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a single dose of VSV-ZEBOV using a so-called "ring vaccination" strategy, where close contacts of a person diagnosed with Ebola are immunised - either immediately, or at a later date.
    As data began to emerge showing the very high protection rates in those vaccinated immediately, however, researchers decided on July 26 that they would no longer use the "delayed" strategy, since it was becoming clear that making people wait involved unethical and unnecessary risk.
    The trial is now being continued, with all participants receiving the vaccine immediately, and will be extended to include 13- to 17-year-olds and possibly also 6- to 12-year-old children, the WHO said.
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