A highly anticipated test of an experimental Ebola vaccine will begin this week, amid mounting anxiety about the deadly virus which is “spiraling out of control”.
The experimental Ebola vaccine is coming after an expedited review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which gave the green light to begin so-called human safety trial.
It will be the first test of this type of Ebola vaccine in humans.
The experimental vaccine, developed by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
If deemed safe, it will then be given to another small group of volunteers, aged 18 to 50, to see if it produces a strong immune response to the virus. All will be monitored closely for side effects.
The vaccine will be administered to volunteers by an injection in the deltoid muscle of their arm, first in a lower dose, then later in a higher dose after the safety of the vaccine has been determined.
Some of the preclinical studies that are normally done on these types of vaccines were waived by the FDA during the expedited review, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, said that so “we want to take extra special care that we go slowly with the dosing.”
The vaccine did extremely well in earlier trials with chimpanzees, Fauci said.
He noted that the method being used to prompt an immune response to Ebola cannot cause a healthy individual to become infected with the virus.
Still, he said, “I have been fooled enough in my many years of experience… you really can’t predict what you will see (in humans).”
Elsewhere, Dr. Tom Frieden, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered his stark commentary to CNN a day after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia, voiced dissatisfaction with the world response so far.
“In a way, we feel saddened by the response,” President Sirleaf said.
More than 3,000 people have been infected by Ebola in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the first documented cases in December, according to the World Health Organization. At least 1,552 have died.
Making it worse, Frieden said, is how other countries have turned their backs on those coming from countries where the outbreak is strongest, even if they don’t realize it.
Measures to restrict flights and border crossings into the countries facing the outbreak were designed to contain the spread, but are having a paradoxical effect, he explained.
“This is making it really hard to get help in and to respond effectively to the outbreak,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“What we’re seeing is a … hugely fast increase in cases that’s harder and harder to manage,” he said. “The more we can get in there and tamp that down, the fewer cases we’ll have in the weeks and months to come.”
The president of Doctors Without Borders sharply criticized what she called the “global coalition of inaction” for focusing on insulating their nations instead of helping those in Africa who need it most. Dr. Joanne Liu said centers run by her group have turned away sick because they are too full, as an ever-increasing number of people develop symptoms of Ebola.
“States with the required capacity have a political and humanitarian responsibility to come forward and offer a desperately needed, concrete response to the disaster unfolding in front of the world’s eyes … rather than limit their response to the potential arrival of an infected patient in their countries,” Liu said.
In her CNN interview, President Sirleaf of Liberia appealed for other nations to “please work as partners with us” by offering monetary, health care, logistical and other assistance, yes, but also by giving moral and personal support to a problem that’s affected millions already.