Ebola Vaccine 100% Effective in Trials

She said that the “good news” was in spite of the fact that more conclusive evidence was needed to ascertain the effectiveness of the new vaccine.

A vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus has been shown to be 100 percent successful in trials conducted in Guinea. “This is the very first intervention against Ebola“.

“VSV-EBOV was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada”, the WHO announcement said.

It was also tested on a small number of frontline workers with the charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who have been involved in treating those with the illness.

The world is “on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine”, Ms Chan said.

“Getting sacked doesn’t really happen at the United Nations”, he said.

This and other vaccine trials were fast-tracked with enormous worldwide effort as researchers raced to be able to test potential therapies and vaccines while the virus was still circulating.

“This is the new WHO at work”, he said, noting that the WHO is branching out from its own technical work to coordinate with other groups.

Kieny added Sierra Leone’s government will now need to decide if it also wants to use the ring vaccination approach. “This forms what is called a ring”. They were randomly assigned to get the vaccine right away or in three weeks.

The results were striking.

Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) weighed in on the study results saying that frontline Ebola workers need to be vaccinated.

Jeremy Farrar, a leading infectious disease specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust, said the trial “dared to use a highly innovative and pragmatic design, which allowed the team in Guinea to assess this vaccine in the middle of an epidemic“.

None of the vaccinated group caught the virus.

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At the moment, officials think the vaccine would only be used once an outbreak starts, to protect those at high-risk; there are no plans to introduce mass vaccination campaigns like those for measles or polio or to create huge stockpiles of the shots.

The first-ever UN emergency health mission was established in September 2014 with its headquarters set in Ghana to meet immediate needs related to the fight against the unprecedented outbreak of Ebola in West Africa and is closed on July 31, 2015. NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff has this report.

All 33 contacts in Liberia who have been followed up since the latest infections there are two days from completing the 21-day period to be declared free of the disease.

“So there is no licensed vaccine we are looking at at this time”.

The results have been hailed as “extremely promising” by World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan.

“It could be a game-changer because previously there was nothing, despite the disease being identified 40 years ago”.

Analysis of the drug found that it was 100% effective when used in certain conditions in Guinea. In a statement in April, the WHO even admitted that “the world, including WHO, is ill-prepared for a large and sustained disease outbreak”.

“Prior to vaccination there were cases, cases, cases”. So this forms what is called a ring.

KIENY: No cases anymore – finished, zero.

GlaxoSmithKline applauded its rival’s success but said it would persevere with development of its alternative non-live vaccine. According to experts, the results are truly remarkable.

She highlighted six key areas which would enhance WHO capacity to deal with major health outbreaks such as Ebola.