The United States health officials have said they are considering a
trial test of the recently launched Ebola vaccine in Nigeria, as they
also prepare to test the vaccine in The Gambia and Mali in
mid-September.
The US National Institutes of Health announced in a statement on
Thursday that it would launch the safety trial on the vaccine
developed by the agency's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline.
The testing is expected to start on Tuesday with 20 volunteers to see
if the virus is safe for use on humans.
The statement said in part, "The US Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention has initiated discussions with Ministry of Health officials
in Nigeria about the prospects for conducting a Phase 1 safety study
of the vaccine among healthy adults in that country. The pace of human
safety testing for experimental Ebola vaccines has been expedited in
response to the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa."
Testing of the vaccine will be at NIH's campus and involve a mixture
that uses both the current Zaire strain and another strain, Sudan. In
the second week of September, NIH and a British team will test that
vaccine on 100 volunteers in the United Kingdom.
"Initial human testing of an investigational vaccine to prevent Ebola
virus disease will begin next week by the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National
Institutes of Health.
"The early-stage trial will begin initial human testing of a vaccine
co-developed by NIAID and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and will evaluate the
experimental vaccine's safety and ability to generate an immune system
response in healthy adults. Testing will take place at the NIH
Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland," the NIH noted.
The study is the first of several Phase 1 clinical trials that will
examine the investigational NIAID/GSK Ebola vaccine and an
experimental Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of
Canada.
According to the statement, these trials are conducted in healthy
adults who are not infected with Ebola virus to determine if the
vaccine is safe and induces an adequate immune response.
"There is an urgent need for a protective Ebola vaccine, and it is
important to establish that a vaccine is safe and spurs the immune
system to react in a way necessary to protect against infection," the
NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, said.
He added, "We know the best way to prevent the spread of Ebola
infection is through public health measures, including good infection
control practices, isolation, contact tracing, quarantine, and
provision of personal protective equipment.
"However, a vaccine will ultimately be an important tool in the
prevention effort. The launch of Phase 1 Ebola vaccine studies is the
first step in a long process."
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