SHE

EBOLA:

Hope replaces despair as the first human trial of new Ebola vaccine begins

Nurse Pauline Cafferkey

 

The first human trials of a new Ebola vaccine began earlier today in the latest step at halting both the spread of the virus in West Africa and death of care givers and medical personal from Europe and America. This attempt is an initiative of scientists at Oxford University who already have immunised the first healthy volunteers with the new drug. Hopefully, it would protect people against the volunteers against the dreaded disease.

The World Health Organisation said today more than 8,100 people have now lost their lives to the virus, the majority in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Nigeria, the most populous black country in the world with an estimated population of 160 million people was declared Ebola free after the death of a few Ebola victims last October.  The Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics, aims to have vaccinated 72 healthy adult volunteers by the end of this month (January 2015). 

The trail involves a 'prime-boost' vaccine regime, meaning volunteers would receive a first 'prime' injection to stimulate an initial immune response. Following this, they would receive and additional booster injection two in March, which is intended to enhance the body’s immune response.

Ebola virus

The vaccine on trial does not contain any replicating virus, implying that it cannot cause Ebola infection on its own. The immune responses that the vaccine generates – both antibodies and T cells – will also be measured over a period of one year.

Previous trials showed the vaccine was successful in protecting primates against the Kikwit Zaire strain of Ebola – which is similar to the virus causing the current outbreak in Western Africa. The strain has a mortality rate of up to 90 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation. 

The trial's main objective is to test the vaccine's safety, and to test which order the two vaccine components should be given in a prime-boost regime, and how far apart. Developers of the drug, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, have now accelerated the trial due to the continued spread of the virus in West Africa.

Nurse Pauline in Isolation

Two other Ebola vaccine have been developed. In September, a trial of one another Ebola vaccine developed by GSK/US National Institutes of Health (NIH) began. The vaccine used a single Ebola virus protein to generate an immune response, but similarly could not cause anyone to become infected with Ebola as it didn't contain infectious virus material. The trial involved vaccination of 60 healthy volunteers and initial results are expected later this month. Another Ebola vaccine being developed by the biotech company NewLink Genetics will also soon be on trial. 

The latest known medico victim of Ebola, Nurse Pauline Cafferkey, 39, is fighting for her life after being diagnosed with Ebola last Monday having spent five weeks treating victims in Sierra Leone. Officials at Heathrow had allowed her to board a connecting flight to Glasgow even though she had complained of a fever. Ms Cafferkey, from Glasgow, is in a critical but stable state at a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in North London.