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South Sudan is vaccinating health workers against Ebola in case the virus crosses the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ebola virus has hit more than 700 people in the DRC and killed more than 400. According to the World Health Organization, the death rate is 59%.
Further afield in Ohio, US researchers are working to develop a new, sustainable Ebola vaccine. At the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Paul Spearman is leading a clinical trial that is testing two experimental Ebola vaccines.
"Researchers are looking for new ways to stop these outbreaks and treat infected people who are contracting Ebola.Developing preventative Ebola vaccines is a global public health priority," said Spearman, director of Ebola. Infectious Diseases Division. Cincinnati Children & # 39; s and the trial lead investigator.
Volunteers first receive one of the vaccines. A week later, they get each other. Spearman said the doubling was promising and could provide quick protection against Ebola.
These are weakened live-vector vaccines that can not grow in human cells, but they produce a strong immune response to Ebola proteins.
Karnail Singh, Ph.D., also at Cincinnati Children's, runs the program that tests volunteers' blood samples. The researchers test the samples collected before the injection of the experimental vaccines to the volunteers and again afterwards.
Singh said that in this way, researchers can compare the samples and see if the vaccines confer immunity. The researchers also plan to take blood samples six months after the first two injections. If the vaccine is still effective, they hope to repeat the process six months later. These intensive laboratory studies and the rapid priming program have not yet been developed to develop an Ebola vaccine.
In Congo, health workers use a vaccine developed during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that raged from 2013 to 2016. It protects the strain of Zaire from Ebola. circulating in Congo. But there are two other deadly strains of Ebola. Health officials want vaccines that protect them all.
The vaccine tested at Cincinnati Children's has not yet been compared to that used in Congo, but it can protect against at least one other strain of Ebola. The goal is to produce a safe, effective and sustainable vaccine.
Cincinnati researchers hope their work will shed light on how to boost immunity against other viruses or bacteria that can cause disease.
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