Ebola vaccine trial – A vaccine against deadly Ebola virus has shown 100 % success rate in trials.
Researchers have developed Ebola vaccine after a year and half of the most devastating Ebola outbreak in human history, which started in Guinea in December 2013. If we had such a vaccine available 18 month ago then thousands of lives could have been saved.
World Health Organization (WHO) said the findings could be a “game-changer”. The results of the clinical trials are remarkable because the pace with which the development and the testing of the vaccine were carried out. Scientists, doctors and drug companies collaborated to get the vaccine through a complex process in just 12 months which usually takes a decade to do so.
The trial tested a vaccine called rVSV-ZEBOV, composed of a fragment of Ebola virus combined with another safer virus in order to boost the immune system to beat Ebola. Mortality record showed that more than 10,000 people have died from the aforementioned virus and 27,748 cases have been reported to have the infection.
On the contrary, as of the new report 7,600 people in Guinea who have received the shot were miraculously not contracted of the deadly virus. That is to reiterate, after having the vaccine shot. The findings mean that the vaccine provided 100 % protection from the virus. The study’s small size means that the vaccine’s true protection rate may be slightly lower, between 75 and 100 %.
The vaccine was developed by Public Health Agency of Canada and then sold to the pharmaceutical company Merck to conclude the testing. The project was funded by Wellcome Trust and other partners, including governments of Canada and Norway. The volunteer doctors who were on the front line were members of Medecins sans Frontieres also know as Doctors Beyond Borders. IMAGE/mashable.com
