A recent clinical trial shows that a new Ebola vaccine (ChAd3-EBO-Z) provokes a strong immune response and has positive toleration in adults living in Mali and in the U.S.
The vaccine was created as part of an unprecedented worldwide consortium that was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The study, which was published in Lancet Infectious Disease, suggests that the vaccine could protect people who are close to Ebola patients, whether they are neighbors, family members or coworkers. Protecting these individuals would serve to interrupt the spread of the disease and stop it before it grows into a larger epidemic.
“This is a crucial step on the road to using this vaccine in humans,” Myron Levine, the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s associate dean for Global Health, Vaccinology and Infectious Diseases, said. “This gives us essential information that the vaccine is not only well-tolerated but the high dose stimulates strong immune responses in adults in West Africa, the global region where the Ebola outbreak was rampant last year.”
The vaccine has been developed for this purpose and with future Ebola epidemics in mind.
“Ebola remains an urgent international public health problem. Dr. Levine and the CVD team have done excellent work with this study. It will give us crucial data that will eventually help those who are on the front lines of the fight against Ebola,” E. Albert Reece,
the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s dean, said. “This is just one example of how our faculty are deeply involved in global health.”
