Ebola Vaccine Trial Starts in Guinea

TIME MAGAZINE  by Alexandra Sifferlin                                             March 25, 2015
An efficacy trial for an Ebola vaccine launched in Guinea on Wednesday.

 A health worker prepares a vaccination on March 10, 2015 at a health center in Conakry during the first clinical trials of the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus.

The vaccine, VSV-EBOV, was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and has already shown positive results in smaller safety trials. NewLink Genetics and Merck are collaborating on the vaccine, and the Guinean government and World Health Organization (WHO) are leading the trial, which is taking place in Basse-Guinée, a community where many Ebola cases spread.

The trial is using what’s called a “ring vaccination” strategy, which means that when a person is infected with Ebola, a group, or ring, of their contacts will be vaccinated. Some of the contacts will be vaccinated immediately, and some will be vaccinated three weeks later. The format was chosen so that everyone could get the vaccine, instead of giving some people a placebo. The hope is that the people who are vaccinated will create a “ring of immunity” from the virus, which could prevent its spread. Similar strategies have been used for smallpox, according to the WHO.

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http://time.com/3758011/ebola-vaccine-trial-guinea/