Sense of urgency heightens over Ebola crisis (the virus has repeatedly mutated in recent months)
Adding more urgency to the crisis, new research detailed how the virus at the heart of the outbreak has mutated repeatedly in recent months, a fact that could hinder diagnosis and treatment of the devastating disease the longer the crisis stretches on. Five of the paper’s 50 co-authors died of Ebola before they could see their findings about the sequencing of the virus’s genome published....
Scientists from the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, said the experimental vaccine that will undergo human trials beginning next week has shown promising results in non-human primates. If the trials are successful, officials said, they could have 10,000 doses available in short order to immunize health workers and others at risk of contracting Ebola.
‘Safety is paramount’
The trial, which will take place at NIH’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, will involve 20 healthy adults between ages 18 and 50 and will test both the safety of the vaccine and its ability to generate an immune response in patients. Participants will be evaluated over a 48-week period, but officials said they hope to have initial safety data by the end of the year — a scientific and ethical necessity before distributing any new drug widely.
“Safety is paramount; it’s absolutely paramount,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters Thursday. “The data [on the vaccine] in non-human primates is really quite impressive. But in science, you never know, and that’s why we do the trials.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sense-of-urgency-heightens-over-ebola-crisis/2014/08/28/3ced2ca2-2ee3-11e4-bb9b-997ae96fad33_story.html