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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : October 25, 2014 1:08 PM IST
Ebola virus is spreading far and fast and various steps are being taken to control its outbreak. Assistant Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO) Marie-Paule Kieny said hundreds of thousands of Ebola vaccines might be ready for use in the first half of 2015 to turn the tide against the deadly epidemic.
On Thursday, WHO convened a meeting of government representatives, vaccine manufacturers, funding agencies and civil society to discuss how to quicken the testing and deployment of promising vaccines in sufficient numbers to use in the field in 2015.
'Phase 1 of clinical trials of two most advanced vaccines have been started, the result of these trials will be available in December 2014,' Kieny told a press conference at WHO's headquarters in Geneva.
Kieny said the trials of the two vaccines, cAd3-ZEBOV and rVSV-ZEBOV, developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Public Health Agency of Canada respectively, have begun in Britain, the US and Mali, and will shortly begin in Switzerland, Germany, Gabon and Kenya, Xinhua reported.
She noted that at least five more vaccines are following up closely, which will be in the clinic in the first month of 2015.
She said pharmaceutical companies that are developing the vaccines are committed to increasing the production capacity to millions of doses in 2015, with hundreds of thousands ready in the first half of next year.
'To make this a reality, regulatory authorities in countries where vaccines are being manufactured and in Africa will need to work closely with manufacturers, to extremely shorten timelines and to find ways to overcome the number of furthers,' she added.
'Vaccines are not a magic bullet, but when ready they may be a good part of the effort to turn the tide against the epidemic,' she said.
Interesting facts about the Ebola virus that make it so deadly.
It can kill within seven days: Unlike other viruses (like HIV) that can remain dormant in a person for years without causing the disease, Ebola violently multiplies until the viral particles are amplified to about 100 million viral particles in a droplet of blood. Further, without resting in a dormant stage the virus kills the host to find a new one. The fatality rate of the disease is 60 percent.
Attacks every part of the human body: Ebola only needs a host cell that can help it produce multiple copies of itself. What worsens the condition is the fact that the virus does not need a specific type of cell to multiply (unlike other deadly diseases). According to studies, except for skeletal muscles and bones, the virus is known to infect every part of the human body. Connective tissues, the ones that hold your internal organs in place, are primary targets of the virus.
Photo source: Getty images
With inputs from IANS
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