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Ebola: Experimental drugs and vaccines Ebola: Experimental drugs and vaccines
(4 months later)
With hundreds of cases of Ebola in Africa, a panel of World Health Organization (WHO) experts has declared it is ethical to use experimental drugs in this current outbreak. With more than 5,000 deaths from Ebola in West Africa, the race is on to find a cure. In September, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that experimental treatments and vaccines for the virus should be fast-tracked.
Now three research projects will take place in West Africa, testing antiviral drugs and the use of survivors' blood to treat the sick.
What is the current treatment for Ebola?What is the current treatment for Ebola?
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus. Hospital treatment is based on giving patients intravenous fluids to stop dehydration and antibiotics to fight infections. Strict medical infection control and rapid burial are regarded as the best means of prevention. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus. Hospital treatment is based on giving patients intravenous fluids to stop dehydration and antibiotics to fight infections. Strict medical infection control and rapid burial are regarded as the best means of prevention.
What about experimental treatments? So what are scientists doing now?
Several experimental treatments for Ebola are being developed, which have shown promising results in monkeys when given up to five days after infection. However, they have not been tested in more than a handful of people and none has been licensed. They are focusing their efforts on two approaches - treatments to help people already infected with the virus and vaccines to protect people from catching it in the first place.
What is serum? There are lots of different experimental vaccines and drug treatments for Ebola under development, but they have not yet been fully tested for safety or effectiveness.
Serum - the part of the blood that contains antibodies that can target and neutralise the disease - has been used in past Ebola outbreaks. Survivors have high levels of antibodies against the virus in their blood. In one outbreak in 1995 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, seven out of eight patients survived after being treated with serum from survivors, according to Prof Solomon. The WHO says serum could be used as a potential treatment in this current outbreak if methods are developed to collect and administer it safely. The aim is get them tested and signed off for use as quickly as possible.
What other approaches are being tried? Research projects announced
Scientists have been working on a number of prototype vaccines against Ebola. The WHO says further trials would start soon and potential vaccines may be available in 2016. The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres announced that three of its treatment centres in West Africa would each host separate research projects to try to find a cure for the Ebola virus. The first trials are due to start in December and the first results could be available in February 2015.
The Food and Drug Administration in the US says it is fast-tracking a vaccine that has shown encouraging signs in monkeys for phase 1 trials in September. These three trials will research the following:
This type of trial is the earliest study in humans and aims to make sure that drugs are safe and show some chance of working. Vaccine trials
Already under way are safety trials in humans of two experimental vaccines, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Normally it would take years of human trials before a completely new vaccine was approved for use but the aim is to have 20,000 doses that could be used in West Africa by early next year.
The GSK vaccine uses a chimpanzee-derived adenovirus vector with an Ebola virus gene inserted. It is being tested in Mali, the UK and the US.
Research on the Canadian vaccine is also under way in the US. It uses an attenuated or weakened vesicular stomatitis virus, a pathogen found in livestock; one of its genes has been replaced by an Ebola virus gene.
Experimental treatments
Experimental drugs such as Zmapp have already been given to patients in the current outbreak, but they have not saved all patients. Two US aid workers and a Briton recovered after taking it, but a Liberian doctor and a Spanish priest died. The treatment is a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies that attack proteins on the surface of the virus.
But the medicine has only previously been tested on animals, and experts say it is still unclear whether the drug boosts chances of recovery. Stocks of the drug have also been extremely limited. Manufacturers of the drug say it will take months to increase production.
What are the chances of success?What are the chances of success?
Experts say pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to invest the huge resources needed to develop new drugs when these would probably be used only occasionally in relatively small numbers of people. They say investment is needed from international agencies to have any realistic chance of success in the future.Experts say pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to invest the huge resources needed to develop new drugs when these would probably be used only occasionally in relatively small numbers of people. They say investment is needed from international agencies to have any realistic chance of success in the future.