Several Ebola Vaccines Are Being Tested Worldwide In Clinical Trials
Ebola Vaccines |
The Ebola virus is one of the deadliest viruses known to man,
with a mortality rate of up to 90%. It first appeared in 1976 in two
simultaneous outbreaks, one in Sudan and the other in the Democratic Republic
of Congo. Since then, there have been sporadic outbreaks, mostly in Africa, but
the deadliest outbreak occurred between 2014 and 2016, with over 28,000 cases
and over 11,000 deaths. The lack of an Ebola
Vaccines for the Ebola virus made it difficult to contain the spread of the
disease during these outbreaks. However, after years of research, scientists
discovered an Ebola vaccine, which has been instrumental in containing the
spread of the disease in recent years.
The search for the Ebola
Vaccines began in
earnest in the mid-1990s when several Ebola outbreaks occurred in Africa. At
that time, researchers were able to identify the genetic makeup of the virus
and began exploring ways to create a vaccine. However, progress was slow, and
it was not until the outbreak in West Africa in 2014 that the search for a
vaccine gained renewed urgency.
Several vaccines were in development, but one of the most
promising was the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, which was developed by a team of
researchers from the Public Health Agency of Canada and licensed to the
pharmaceutical company Merck. The vaccine is a type of recombinant vesicular
stomatitis virus (rVSV) that has been modified to contain a gene from the Ebola
virus (ZEBOV).
The rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola
Vaccines was first tested in a phase I clinical trial in 2015, which showed
that it was safe and generated an immune response. The vaccine was then tested
in a phase III trial in Guinea, which was one of the countries hardest hit by
the Ebola outbreak. The trial involved over 11,000 participants and was
conducted using a ring vaccination strategy, which involved vaccinating all
close contacts of an infected person, as well as their contacts. The trial
showed that the vaccine was highly effective, with a 100% efficacy rate at 10
days after vaccination.
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