Ebola vaccine Phase I trial shows 'highly promising' results
Immunisation against the Ebola virus is possible with just one injection
A live vaccine based on the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) has shown 'highly promising' results for the development of an Ebola vaccine, which would only need to be injected once for long-lasting protection against the virus.
These are the key findings of an international study coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Michael Ramharter, co-author of the study, from the University Department of Internal Medicine I at the MedUni Vienna, has worked for 15 years at the Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné in Gabon. This hospital carried out the Phase I Ebola vaccination study in Africa.
The international partners include Vienna and Lambaréné, as well as a centre in Kenya, with the university hospitals of Hamburg and Tübingen in Germany and Geneva, Switzerland.
Just one vaccine has conferred 100% protection against Ebola in the initial trials on primates
In the study, researchers vaccinated 158 healthy volunteers in Kenya, Germany and Switzerland with a placebo or various doses of an Ebola vaccine called rVSV-ZEBOV.
While VSV only causes mild symptoms in humans, the protein acts as an Ebola antigen and triggers the formation of antibodies against the disease in the immune system. These antibodies hide in the body to fight the Ebola virus if the individual becomes infected.
'Just one vaccine has conferred 100% protection against Ebola in the initial trials on primates,' said Ramharter. 'The vaccine response is very reliable, the vaccine itself is safe and its tolerability is acceptable.' The most significant side effect was found to be temporary joint pain and inflammation reported among a small group of test subjects, particularly in the European centres.
In the Phase II studies that are now starting, the vaccine will be used in patients living in the areas currently most badly affected by Ebola, especially Guinea and Sierra Leone, but also in Liberia.
The first case of Ebola was reported in West Africa around 15 months ago. According to estimates, around 25,000 people have been infected and more than 10,000 have since died as a result.