Saturday, August 30, 2014

Ebola vaccine testing begins in US




…then U.K., Gambia and Mali

The charity Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, announced in April it is facing an unprecedented epidemic in terms of the distribution of [Ebola] cases scattered in several locations in Guinea - where the West African outbreak began.  (Photo: Kjell Gunnar Beraas/MSF)
Human trials of an experimental Ebola vaccine will begin in the United States next week, the website www.wistv.com reported via CNN on August 29.

It reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said the first test will be done at the NIAID labs in Bethesda, MD.

“We’re going to start the on the vaccine here. Then very soon thereafter, they’re going to start in the U.K. and the U.K. is then going to use sites that we have in Mali and the Gambia,” Fauci is quoted as saying.
Fauci says the goal is to develop a vaccine that will prevent humans from contracting Ebola. 

What we are talking about is a vaccine to give to an uninfected person to help prevent them from getting infected the same way when we were children getting vaccines to protect us from getting infected, Fauci said according to WISTV.

The experimental vaccine could be given to healthy volunteers in Britain, Gambia and Mali as early as September, according to a consortium, which provided funding, the U.S. Cable News Network (CNN) reports.

The vaccine, which does not contain infectious virus materials, has showed promise in early tests on primates to protect them from Ebola without significant adverse effects, the statement said.

 Ebola disease is spreading fast across West Africa, with neighbouring Senegal being the 5th country to confirm a case, after Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Some 1552 people have died of the disease since its outbreak in Guinea early 2014, according to the World Health Organisation. 

Current cases reaches 3, 069 with 40 per cent occurring in the past three weeks, it added, warning that the number could reach 20, 000.

Gambia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has begun sending random text messages that reads: “Ebola is deadly and has no cure. Avoid shaking hands, contact with infected persons or dead bodies and always wash hands with soap. Keep Gambia Ebola free.”


Written by Modou S. Joof



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