Two experimental vaccines against Ebola virus, one developed by the GlaxoSmithKline laboratory and the other by a young biotechnology company, NewLink Genetics Corp in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada, “would be perfectly safe,” said the National Institute of Human Health. United States (NIH).
The efficacy and safety of these two vaccines, which only require a single injection, are currently being tested in more than 600 people in Liberia, in a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Disease. infectious diseases, a branch of the NIH.
A new phase of testing with more women
As the first safety trials are encouraging, the study can now move on to the next testing phase, which focuses on efficacy. A new group of volunteers will be injected, either the vaccine or a placebo, in order to check the response of their immune system. In particular, the researchers want to include more women in this new trial because they were only 216% in the first group. They want to be sure that there are no gender differences in side effects or immune response. Note that none of these volunteers will be voluntarily exposed to the virus, only the immune response is taken into account to judge the effectiveness of the vaccine.
There will then be a follow-up period of at least one year with two blood samples from all volunteers six months and twelve months respectively after vaccination to determine the duration of the immune response.
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