Volunteer Gets Experimental Ebola Vaccine

[kysrsoze]

Steve Rucker, a registered nurse at the National Institutes of Health, broke with his lunchtime routine yesterday, forgoing his usual visit to the cafeteria and opting instead to roll up his sleeve for a shot filled with the biological essence of Ebola -- one of the world's deadliest and goriest diseases.

Surrounded by a gaggle of doctors and scientists, Rucker stepped into medical history at 12:10 p.m., becoming the first person ever injected with an experimental vaccine designed to protect against Ebola, the disease that was highlighted in the real-life thriller "The Hot Zone" and which continues to take a bloody toll in Africa.

"I've had better lunches," Rucker quipped as the shot's 100 trillion strands of synthetic DNA began to make their way into the cells in his arm.

Rucker is a pioneer in a high-tech effort to beat Ebola. If the vaccine works in people as it has in monkeys, it could fell one of the world's most horrid infectious scourges.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59364-2003Nov18.html


Nice to see something positive going on in the world.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

1. Wow!!

He's very brave to do this. I don't think I would be so brave.

[WindRavenX]

2. Jesus

You could never get me to do that in a million years.
Ebola scares me too much..:scared:

[truthisfreedom]

3. good luck, Steve. you're an unusual person.

hope the vaccine is rockin'.

[bicentennial_baby]

4. A courageous man

Good job Steve Rucker, and good luck! :toast:

[splat]

5. No ebola inside

The irony, scientists and doctors lament, is that this first Ebola vaccine is probably the safest and most sophisticated vaccine ever made, without a single component coming from the virus itself.

Indeed, the product spray-blasted into Rucker's arm (no needle necessary) is by any standard a marvel of biotechnological engineering. It was designed to rally the immune system even more than a real Ebola infection would, without causing any symptoms of the disease itself.

[fshrink]

6. Still. Like the good man says:

"I've had better lunches". Nothing like humor.

[truthisfreedom]

7. less than 1 calorie.

ew.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi splat!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[tlb]

8. I sure hope this works, ebola scares the heck out of me..

The heroes who voluntarily test medical vaccines are seldom remmebered by history but what we owe them can never be calcualted, or repaid.

[Greyskye]

10. You and me both

I lived in Reston VA at the time of the Monkey House outbreak there that was written about in the book "The Hot Zone". Didn't hear a thing about it at the time of course, but after reading the book many years later I had nightmares for 3 nights running. :scared: