Ebola billboard in Africa Credit: AP/Aurelie Marrier d’Unienville
The next time Ebola strikes, Africa, and everywhere else, will be better prepared.
Findings from tests of rVSV-ZEBOV, a trial vaccine, show a 100% protection rate with thousands of people tested in Guinea all confirmed as virus-free within 10 days. The World Health Organization, which led the trial, says the vaccine could be available for mass use by 2018.
To meet that timeline, the regulatory approval process for the vaccine is being fast-tracked. In the meantime, backed by GAVI, a global vaccine alliance, pharmaceutical giants Merck have made 300,000 doses of the vaccine available in the event of an outbreak.
The possibility of an Ebola vaccine is a major leap for Africans at risk of the disease following a devastating outbreak mainly in three West African countries which started in 2014. Though now controlled, World Bank estimates put the cost of the outbreak’s economic impact at more than $3 billion in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia—the worst affected countries.
Great news!
I think the outbreak was actually caused by a clinical trial that went wrong. I was hearing reports that the genetic analysis of the virus indicated it was unusual, and later I heard that one of the attempts to make a vaccine involved genetic modifications. By the way, the Zika thing is a total fraud.