Ebola: Hope rises as vaccine offers 100% protection in trial
An Ebola vaccine provided 100-percent
protection in a field trial in hard-hit Guinea, researchers and officials said Friday,
mooting “the beginning of the end” of the killer West African outbreak.
The world is “on the verge of an
effective Ebola vaccine,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said, hailing the
results from the first efficacy test of the VSV-ZEBOV vaccine among people
living in a high-danger zone.
“This is an extremely
promising development,” added WHO chief Margaret Chan.
“An effective vaccine will be another very important tool for both current and future Ebola outbreaks.”
“An effective vaccine will be another very important tool for both current and future Ebola outbreaks.”
About 28,000 people have been infected
in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the worst Ebola outbreak in history,
according to the WHO, and more than 11,000 have died.
VSV-ZEBOV may become the first licensed
vaccine against the disease for which there is also no approved treatment or
cure. The trial showed that the vaccine “offers 100 percent protection against
Ebola after roughly one week,” said researcher Sven Trelle from the University
of Bern.
For the full story, check the Vanguard Newspaper.
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