Ebola
Vaccine Trials Underway in Africa
There
has been a major rush to find an effective vaccine to prevent Ebola. Researchers have been running clinical trials
for anti-Ebola vaccines since last summer.
It is too early to say that any of the vaccines in trial are working;
however, they are seeing positive results.
Currently, trial candidates that are infected with the Ebola virus have
been selected in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone,
and other countries where the virus remains active. Dr. Mark Mulligan treated an American doctor,
exposed to the Ebola virus, with an investigative vaccine and reported the
results of the trial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “We
saw strong responses from the innate immune system, the immediate responses,
the first defenders in our body, and also from the subsequent antibodies and T
cells that we want a vaccine to produce," said Mulligan. He did not develop the disease. Even though researchers have made a lot of
ground and are seeing positive results, there is still a great amount of work
to do. If the virus happens to evolve,
it would render the current vaccines in trial ineffective. "A lot of these
different vaccines and treatments were developed against one species of Ebola,
and a particular strain of that species, so there are five different species of
Ebola virus. Three of those cause disease and morbidity, mortality in man,"
said Dr. Thomas Geisbert.
It is good to hear that researchers are coming close to
develop a vaccine or some type of treatment option against the deadly Ebola
virus. The disease has already claimed
over 10, 000 West African lives. A cure
should be their top priority, especially since West Africa is at risk of
another outbreak, which has the potential to be more devastating than the last.
"It could benefit people if this
outbreak went the wrong way again. And, even more importantly, these could be
incredibly important tools for future outbreaks," said Dr. Jesse Goodman.
Brandon Smith
3/31/2015
7:30PM
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