Ebola vaccine trial 100% successful in Guinea: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against Ebola, as data from a trial in Guinea showed a vaccine was 100% effective.

Initial results from the trial, which tested the vaccine on about 4,000 people who had been in close contact with an Ebola patient, showed 100% protection after 10 days. “We believe that the world is on the verge of an efficacious Ebola vaccine,“ WHO vaccine expert Marie Paule Kieny said in Geneva.

The vaccine could now be used to help end the worst recorded outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa since it started in December 2013. WHO director-general Margaret Chan said the results were an ‘extremely promising development’.

‘It will change the management of the current Ebola outbreak and future outbreaks,’ she said. The trial is now being continued, with all participants receiving the vaccine immediately, WHO said.

Written by: Dr. Ajay Sati.