Human trials for two Ebola vaccines developed in Canada have begun on Monday as part of an international program that aims to speed up the process of coming up with drugs that can be used in the battle against the Ebola virus.
The two vaccines that are being tested were developed by different entities, but authorities are hopeful that these vaccines would show promise in the treatment and prevention of the highly lethal virus. The first vaccine was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and is synthesized from a vesicular stomatitis virus or VSV. This vaccine is currently being tested at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The second type was developed by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and uses an adenovirus vessel. Clinical trials for this product are began last month and are still underway at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Clinical trials in Mali, a West African Country, have also reportedly commenced last week. At the moment, Mali has no reported cases of Ebola virus but it shares a border with Ebola-stricken Guinea, which is famously known at house ground zero for the current outbreak. Since then, the virus had already spread it to neighboring countries such a Sierra Leone and Liberia. Both countries are now battling the Ebola virus as the situation has escalated to epidemic proportions.
Currently, researchers say that even under the most optimal conditions, these vaccines will not be ready for use for up to several months until after the results from these clinical trials have been confirmed.
Other avenues of treatment are also being explored in an attempt to bring the deadly disease under control. Some experts are suggesting antiviral therapy, synthesizing artificial antibodies, and blood transfusion. WHO researchers are saying that blood transfusion should be included in the list of priorities when testing for a cure. Currently, there is no definitive proof that this procedure, which involves transferring blood from an Ebola survivor to an infected patient so that his antibodies could potentially fire up the immune system against the virus, will work.
