A preventive vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus is set for clinical trials in September this year and the vaccine may be available for public use by 2015.
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a deadly disease said to have a fatality rate as high as 90 percent. The disease usually outbreaks in remote areas of western and Central Africa and the latest outbreak started in March this year.
There are no treatments and vaccines available for EVD; however, healthcare specialists suggest that there is a better chance of recovering from the disease if found at an early stage.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is working hard to contain the disease, which has already caused over 1,000 deaths since its latest outbreak and affected more than 1,800 people. WHO is also coordinating with other leading agencies such as the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD) to get international aid to fight EVD.
WHO has also announced that British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is researching on vaccines to fight Ebola virus.
"We are working with the US National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center (VRC) to advance development of an early stage vaccine candidate for Ebola. In collaboration with VRC, we have evaluated this vaccine candidate in pre-clinical studies and we are now discussing with regulators advancing it to a phase I clinical trial programme later this year," per a GSK statement.
The Ebola vaccine is expected to go for clinical trials in September and is estimated to be rolled out in 2015.
African countries have been severely affected by the Ebola virus and only a handful of people in the U.S. are reported to have been affected by EVD. However, Jean-Marie Okwo Bele, head of vaccines and immunization at WHO, says that the U.S. and African countries will be the first to get Ebola vaccines as EVD cases have been reported in these regions only. The vaccine may soon be rolled out to other regions as well.
Scientists are excited as the Ebola medicine may be commercially available in 2015, which can save hundreds of lives.
GSK is not the only company researching on the Ebola vaccine. San Diego-based biotech firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical is also researching on an Ebola vaccine called ZMapp, which has been tested on monkeys. A recent report revealed that the vaccine was also tested on two humans, which showed positive results.
