WHO says world on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine

CONAKRY, Guinea, Friday August 7, 2015 – A newly developed vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus is proving to be “highly effective”, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The positive results were obtained during a trial of the VSV-EBOV vaccine in Guinea, one of the West African countries affected by the recent outbreak.

“This is an extremely promising development,” said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. “The credit goes to the Guinean Government, the people living in the communities and our partners in this project. An effective vaccine will be another very important tool for both current and future Ebola outbreaks.”

While the Ebola vaccine so far shows 100 per cent efficacy in individuals, more conclusive evidence is needed on its capacity to protect populations through what is called “herd immunity”.

The Guinean national regulatory authority and ethics review committee have therefore approved continuation of the trial.

“This is Guinea’s gift to West Africa and the world,” said Dr Sakoba Keita, Guinea’s national coordinator for the Ebola response.

“The thousands of volunteers from Conakry and other areas of Lower Guinea, but also the many Guinean doctors, data managers and community mobilisers have contributed to finding a line of defence against a terrible disease.”

The Guinea vaccination trial began in affected communities on March 23 this year to evaluate the efficacy, effectiveness and safety of a single dose of the vaccine by using a ring vaccination strategy.

The ring vaccination method is based on the smallpox eradication strategy.

“The premise is that by vaccinating all people who have come into contact with an infected person you create a protective ring and stop the virus from spreading further. This strategy has helped us to follow the dispersed epidemic in Guinea, and will provide a way to continue this as a public health intervention in trial mode,” explained John-Arne Røttingen, Director of the Division of Infectious Disease Control at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Chair of the Study Steering Group.

To date, over 4,000 close contacts of almost 100 Ebola patients, including family members, neighbours, and co-workers, have voluntarily participated in the trial.

The trial stopped randomization on July 26 to allow for all people at risk to receive the vaccine immediately, and to minimize the time necessary to gather more conclusive evidence needed to eventually license the product.

Along with the ring vaccination, trials of the same vaccine are being conducted on frontline workers.

“These people have worked tirelessly and put their lives at risk every day to take care of sick people. If the vaccine is effective, then we are already protecting them from the virus,” said Bertrand Draguez, Medical Director at Doctors Without Borders.

“With such high efficacy, all affected countries should immediately start and multiply ring vaccinations to break chains of transmission and vaccinate all frontline workers to protect them.”

Originally published at caribbean360.com