While the Ebola epidemic is no longer much talked about in Europe, an American scientific study reports an important advance in obtaining an effective vaccine.
Published in the journal The Lancet, the study was conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (or NIAID) in Bethesda, United States. She is the first to reveal the success of a vaccine against Ebola and against Marburg fever, effective on African populations.
In their phase I clinical study, Dr Julie Ledgerwood’s team tested the efficacy of two vaccines against Ebola: one for the EBO strain of the virus, and one for the SUD strain, both of which are responsible for the epidemic. from 2014.
A vaccine against Marburg fever, a cousin of Ebola, has also been tested.
A total of 108 healthy participants were mobilized, all between the ages of 18 and 50, and from Uganda. The follow-up took place over five months, from November 2009 to April 2010. Created by researchers at NIAID, the vaccines consisted of protein structures attached to the surface of the virus, generating an immune response in the body, without allowing virus replication.
An immune response and few side effects
At the start of the study, then 4 and 8 weeks later, the volunteers received an injection of the vaccine against Ebola (EBO strain), the vaccine against Marburg, both at the same time or a simple placebo.
The team then found that the two vaccines, administered alone or together, did trigger an immune system response. 17 of the 30 participants who received the Ebola vaccine had created antibodies (proteins of the immune system) against the virus four weeks after the last injection. 14 of the 30 participants who received the anti-Marburg vaccine in addition to the anti-Ebola, showed an immune response against the Ebola virus.
However, the researchers observed that these antibodies against the Ebola virus were present at a very low or even undetectable level eleven months after the injection, which means that the vaccine would not be very effective over time.
Both vaccines were well tolerated by the volunteers, with only one side effect: a low white blood cell count was seen in one person who received the Marburg vaccine only.
An experimental vaccine that lays the foundations for the fight against Ebola
“This is the first study to demonstrate such safety and an immune response to an Ebola vaccine tested in an African population,” enthuses Dr. Ledgerwood, lead author of the study. This is particularly encouraging, because the populations most at risk live mainly in Africa, and they have low vaccination coverage for many diseases. “
Dr Ledgerwood also said that this experimental vaccine was already serving as the basis for a new vaccine against Ebola, tested on primates.
For Dr Saranya Sridhar of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford (UK), these results should be the “focus” for the development of an Ebola vaccine:
“This study is the first step on the road to the development of vaccines against filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg) in Africa, and should help break down the spider web that is blocking our progress in this direction. “
Remember that since the beginning of 2014, theWHO has recorded more than 19,000 cases and more than 7,000 deaths from Ebola, the majority in West Africa. In Sierra Leone, public gatherings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve have even been banned to prevent the spread of the virus as much as possible.
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