An effective Ebola vaccine is at hand, says WHO

An effective Ebola vaccine is in the making, the World Health Organisation, WHO, has announced. This development followed results of an interim analysis of the high effectiveness of an experimental vaccine, called the VSV-EBOV, manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme.

The global health body says hopes of a line of defence against the terrible disease are high, in view of preliminary results of the analyses of the Guinea Phase III efficacy vaccine trial on the VSV-EBOV vaccine. 

Tests conducted by an independent body of international experts - the Data and Safety Monitoring Board are promising.

"This is an extremely promising development. 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," said WHO Director-General of the  Dr Margaret Chan.

Although the vaccine shows 100 percent efficacy in individuals, more conclusive evidence is needed on its capacity to protect populations through what is called “herd immunity”. To that end, the Guinean national regulatory authority and ethics review committee have approved continuation of the trial.

Guinea's national coordinator for the Ebola response. Dr Sakoba Keita, described the feat as "Guinea’s gift to West Africa and the world.”  

Director of the Division of Infectious Disease Control at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Chair of the Study Steering Group, John-Arne Røttingen explained that “The 'ring' vaccination method adopted for the vaccine trial is based on the smallpox eradication strategy.

By vaccinating all people who have come into contact with an infected person, a protective 'ring' is created to stop the virus from spreading further. This strategy has helped scientists to follow the dispersed epidemic in Guinea, and will provide a way to continue this as a public health intervention in trial mode.

The Guinea vaccination trial began in affected communities on 23 March 2015 to evaluate the efficacy, effectiveness and safety of a single dose of the vaccine VSV-EBOV by using a ring vaccination strategy.

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.

There are plans to include 13 to 17-year-old and possibly 6 to 12-year-old children on the basis of new evidence of the vaccine’s safety.