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First Ebola Vaccine Undergoing Human Trials In U.S.
The first volunteer in a pioneering Ebola vaccine trial received a synthetic replica of the deadly virus yesterday at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Washington (see GSN, Aug. 7). The trial, administered by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will subject 27 volunteers to three injections over three months in the first attempt to ward off the highly infectious disease, which kills between 50 and 90 percent of its victims. U.S. experts fear the disease could be used in a bioterrorist attack, Reuters reported (Reuters, Nov. 18). “People freak out about Ebola,” said NIH’s director of nursing Margaret McCluskey, adding that she has had difficulty finding volunteers for the trial. So far there are only two. McCluskey says she plans to recruit the other 25 volunteers needed for trial from the World Bank, the Peace Corps and other institutions where people are aware of Ebola's toll. Researchers have offered assurances that volunteers will not contract Ebola. The vaccine, made by the San Diego-based biotechnology company Vical, consists of an innovative laboratory-generated duplicate of the virus, minus the key components that trigger illness. Some researchers reportedly consider it the safest vaccine ever made, according to the Washington Post (Rick Weiss, Washington Post, Nov. 19). Monday the World Health Organization announced it was sending epidemiologists to the Republic of the Congo, which has reported 11 Ebola deaths in a new outbreak of the disease. The virus, for which there is no known cure, is named after the river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, where it was discovered in 1976. The worst outbreak of Ebola killed 250 people there in 1995 (Reuters).
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