(pix: en-africatime)
An experimental Ebola vaccine tested on 20 volunteers appears to be safe and producing the immune response expected within four weeks of receiving the dose.
Half of the test group received
a higher-dose shot, and those people produced more antibodies, says a study
published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Some people also developed a different set of
virus-fighting immune cells, named T cells, doctors found.
Research on monkeys had also noticed such a combination
response, reports AP.
Calling it
"a promising factor," Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which led the vaccine work, said the response was comparable to what had
produced protection in the animals.
The researchers reported no serious side effects other
than high fever which subsided in a day. A booster shot may be needed, say
experts, going by the results in monkey trials.
The NIAID
is working with vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline to develop the vaccine, reports NBC News.
It uses a
common cold virus that normally infects chimpanzees but does not cause any
symptoms in people. When genetically engineered with
a small piece of the Ebola virus, it is expected to trigger the immune response against the Ebola virus.
Additional safety studies are under way in the US
Meanwhile,
the WHO has called for rapid, safe and simple diagnostic tests saying that efforts to contain the Ebola
outbreaks in West Africa are currently
hampered by cumbersome, slow and complex diagnostic tests that pose a number of
additional logistical challenges.
The standard test method using a RT-PCR reaction
provides accurate results when performed by trained staff. But each test
requires a full tube of blood, takes from two to six hours, and costs around
$100.
The virus has claimed over 5,600 people in West Africa,
most of them in Guinea , Liberia and Sierra Leone
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