There's an Ebola Vaccine in Africa. Now What?

A scanning electron micrograph of the Ebola virus. The first large-scale trials of an Ebola vaccine are underway in Africa.(NIAID / Flickr)

Unprecedented: In four months, the Ebola vaccine has gone from concept to field trial. Success is not assured.

 THE NATIONAL JOURNAL  by Brian Resnick                      Jan. 28, 2015

Detailed description of the problems issues and procedures for fieldingand testing Ebola vaccines in West Africa.

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..."Without the (Ebola) virus circulating, there's no way to prove the vaccine is effective. At current infection rates, trial researchers would need to see 100 cases of Ebola over a four-month period to achieve statistical significance. That time frame may stretch, or fall apart altogether.

"It's a real dilemma," says Margaret Harris, an MD and spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. "It's extremely good news that the cases are coming down, but it does mean we may not have clear phase III data."

To accumulate more data, WHO is organizing concurrent phase III trials in Guinea and Sierra Leone. They will test the GSK vaccine and another developed by Merck. Johnson & Johnson is starting safety trials on a third, which could join them in phase III later in the year.

The trial in Guinea may achieve results faster than the one in Liberia. Instead of passively waiting for disease to strike—as in a randomized-control design—researchers in Guinea will target known outbreaks in a first-of-its-kind "ring vaccination trial."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/there-s-an-ebola-vaccine-in-africa-now-what-20150128