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Spanish researchers have begun work on the development of a vaccine that they hope will be effective against all strains of Ebola, announced their director Wednesday in Madrid.
These researchers at the public hospital of October 12, working with two other institutions in the Spanish capital, for months on blood samples from three patients infected with the virus and treated in Spain.
According to Rafael Delgado, director of this team of researchers , the three patients developed antibodies "very effective" against the disease but in "small quantity" and only effective against the Zaire strain.
The "challenge" of these researchers is now to "produce these antibodies on a large scale, through a vaccine "that can be effective against all strains of the virus," said Rafael Delgado, head of microbiology
According to Rafael Delgado, the difficulty lies in the fact that the Ebola virus protects itself with carapaceous proteins and exposes its vulnerable areas for a short time, which complicates the action. of the immune system.
Results within a year
The microbiologist has indicated that he hopes to see the results of tests in mice by one year.
An experimental vaccine, with the technical name rVSVSV-ZEBOV, has already been developed as a result of the worst Ebola epidemic, the most violent in history, that hit West Africa between late 2013 and 2016, causing more than 11,300 deaths
Administered in May in the DRC, this vaccine, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada – licensed by NewLink Genetics who in turn licensed it to Merck & Co – was found to be "very effective" by the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is only against the Zaire strain.
The American laboratory Johnson & Johnson develops an experimental vaccine against two strains.
Spain had registered in 2014 the first person contaminated outside Africa. Teresa Romero, a caregiver, contracted hemorrhagic fever in Spain, caring in a Madrilenian hospital for a missionary repatriated from Sierra Leone and died of the disease.
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