Can Ebola be eradicated?

All content is checked by medical journalists.

In the 1970s, vaccinations were used to eradicate the dangerous smallpox. Doctors now want to tackle Ebola with a similar strategy. The first results are promising.

Last winter, an Ebola epidemic terrified large parts of West Africa. At that time there was no vaccine against the deadly viral disease, and 11,200 people died. In the meantime, scientists have not only developed the active ingredient, but also a vaccination strategy against the Ebola virus.

Circle the enemy

rVSV-ZEBOV is the name of the new vaccine that contains an animal virus that is not very harmful to humans. It was genetically modified in such a way that it now carries a protein from the Ebola Zaire virus, the causative agent of the terrible Ebola epidemic, on its surface. The immune system reacts to this protein - and forms antibodies against the Ebola virus.

Scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health have been testing the vaccine in collaboration with the authorities in Basse-Guinea since April. There people continue to develop Ebola.

A total of 7,651 test persons have since been vaccinated with rVSV-ZEBOV. This is based on a procedure that was already successful in treating smallpox in the 1960s and 1970s: the so-called ring vaccination. Only people who have had direct contact or indirect contact with an infected person via another person are vaccinated. The virus is circled, so to speak.

100 percent effectiveness

To test the effectiveness of the new vaccine, half of the test subjects received the vaccine immediately, the other half only after three weeks. This corresponds to the incubation period of Ebola. In other words, the time span from infection to the onset of the disease.

The vaccination provided 100 percent protection: not a single one of those who were vaccinated immediately developed Ebola symptoms. In the group that was vaccinated only after the incubation period had expired, there were 16. “Based on these results, we started to vaccinate all contact persons of an infected person immediately,” reports study author Marie Paule Kienly. "We hope that we will succeed in bringing Ebola transmission in Guinea to zero."

Indirect protection for the unvaccinated

So far, the vaccine can be classified as safe. Only one of the vaccinated subjects developed a fever, which subsided after a few days.

The vaccination is intended to prevent the virus from spreading. Because even those who have not been vaccinated are indirectly protected. Because of the vaccination, the virus is passed on less frequently. Nevertheless, important data is still missing. For example, it is still unclear how long the vaccination protection lasts. (away)

Sources:

World Health Organization (WHO): World on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine, July 31, 2015.

Kieny M. P. et al .: Efficacy and effectiveness of an rVSV-vectored vaccine expressing Ebola surface glycoprotein: interim results from the Guinea ring vaccination cluster-randomized trial, The Lancet, July 31, 2015.

Tags:  menshealth foot care home remedies