potential vaccine against lethal ebola passed initial human trial

Filed in archive News on February 21, 2006

Government Scientist reported on Friday that the first vaccine made to prevent infection from the lethal Ebola virus has now passed safety tests in humans.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center developed a vaccine made of DNA strands that encode three Ebola proteins. They boosted that vaccine with a weakened cold-related virus, and the combination protected monkeys exposed to Ebola.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever kills within days by causing massive internal bleeding. There is no cure. Ebola is highly contagious, and up to 90 percent of people who catch it die.

The virus was identified in 1976, and scientists still don't know where it incubates between outbreaks. So far they have occurred only in Africa, apparently when people come into contact with infected apes or bushmeat, the meat of ape, which is eaten in many areas of Africa.

However, NIH lead researcher Dr. Gary Nabel cautioned that much more research is necessary to prove whether the vaccine will prove successful and will protect people as it did the monkeys used in previous studies.

Source:[CNN Health]