Despite efforts Ebola vaccine will take until 2015

Officials say, that it is incredibly difficult to develop a vaccine for the Ebola virus before 2015. In the meantime though, the FDA has authorized the use of an unapproved Ebola virus test under a special emergency use provision.

The Zaire strain of Ebola, for which the unapproved test has been authorized has infected at least 1711 people and killed 932 in West Africa. FDA spokesperson Stephanie Yao said that the test is designed for use in specific individuals like the Department of Defense personnel and respondents who may be at a huge risk of infection in the case of an outbreak.

Initial symptoms include flu-like signs, vomiting, muscle aches, weariness and a fever. However as the virus multiplies it damages the cells that line the blood vessels and results in patients bleeding and can cause organ failure. Experts have confirmed that in the latest Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the disease has managed to kill roughly 55% of those infected.
FDA is reported to have said that it is working with other government agencies to speed up the development of potential Ebola treatments.

The experimental vaccine that is the most promising at the moment is the one designed by the Vaccine Research Center, an arm of the National Institutes of Health. Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease says that they have tested the drug on monkeys and the results are quite promising. Clinical trials are expected to begin in September, during that time the researchers are trying to assess if the vaccine will be safe for humans and whether it will trigger a protective response from the immune system. Human test subjects unlike the animal subjects, will not be actually infected with the virus to determine the effectiveness of the drug. The Department of Defense is also working with a company called Newlink to come up with a vaccine for the Ebola virus while Biocryst is working to develop an antiviral drug to treat Ebola with NIH support.

Bio
Latest Posts

Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.