Spanish researchers working on a global Ebola vaccine | Ebola

There is currently a vaccine, but only against one of five strains of this hemorrhagic fever, the variety known as Zaire.

The rVSVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, approved by the Merck & Co US Laboratory, was administered last May in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to prevent the recurrence of an epidemic that left more than 11,300 people dead. between 2013 and 2016 West Africa.

The 12th Octubre Public Hospital, in collaboration with two other centers in Madrid, worked with samples of three patients successfully treated in Spain for months.

Rafael Delgado, the lead researcher, told reporters that the difficulty lies in the fact that the virus protects itself with proteins that serve as a shield, and only exposes its vulnerable areas for a short time, which hampers Action of the immune system.

However, the researchers found that the three patients treated in Spain had produced "highly effective" antibodies against the disease, but "in small amounts" and only against the Zaire strain, with which they became infected.

The goal from now on, added Delgado, is to produce these antibodies in larger amounts, and so that they are effective against the five strains of the virus.

The researcher pointed out that the team expects to have the results of tests done with rats in a year.