Ebola Vaccine Has Profound Effect On Treatment of Disease

The World Health Organization announced that an Ebola Vaccine is in the works. WHO recently published the News Release, “Final Trial Results Confirm Ebola Vaccine Provides High Protection Against Disease.” This disease was first discovered in 1976, but gained media coverage in 2014, when it spread across West Africa. It quickly became an epidemic infecting those who visited the region. Ebola continued to spread across all of Africa and even to the United States. According to this article, “the vaccine is the first to prevent infection from one of the most lethal known pathogens.” The trial was done involving 11,841 people in Guinea. WHO says that, “among the 5,837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination.” This will hopefully save many lives, decrease recovery time, and increase life expectancy.

The vaccine is called rVSV-ZEBOV and was produced by Merck, Sharpe & Dohme.  The trial was conducted by WHO, Medecins sans Frontieres, Guinea’s Ministry of Health, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. WHO documents that, “rings were randomized to receive the vaccine either immediately or after a three week delay, and only adults over 18 years were offered the vaccine.” WHO adds that, “after the interim results were published showing the vaccine’s efficacy, all rings were offered the vaccine immediately and the trial was opened to children older than six years.” Currently, the vaccine is “available for emergency use in the interim, and to submit the vaccine for licensure by the end of 2017.” More information and data still need to be gathered on any effects involving the vaccine.

This successful trial hopefully leads to WHO medical practices and information on vaccinating those who live in areas with a higher risk of infection. More studies are being done on people who are prone to the disease, such as those living with HIV and compromised immune systems. The scientific process continues to be lengthy but currently that holds lasting effects on the people cured and treated.

 

Source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/ebola-vaccine-results/en/