For the first time, a vaccine is successful to defeat Ebola – lanacion.com (Argentina)

LONDON For the first time, the world is about to be able to protect humans from Ebola, said yesterday the World Health Organization (WHO), after the results of a test in Guinea showed that a vaccine is one hundred percent effective.

Initial results of a study that evaluated the immunization of Merck and NewLink Genetics called VSV-ZEBOV more than 4,000 people who had been in direct contact with a patient with confirmed diagnosis of Ebola showed 100% protection after ten days.

The data were described as “exceptional” and “revolutionary” by specialists in global health. “We believe the world is about to have an effective vaccine against Ebola,” said the expert WHO immunization Marie Paule Kieny, at a press conference in Geneva.

The vaccine can now be used to help end the worst Ebola outbreak on record, which killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa since its inception in December 2013 is taken.

For years, scientists try to develop treatments and vaccines for Ebola, but they face many obstacles, including the sporadic nature of outbreaks.

The Director General of WHO, Margaret Chan, said the study results , published in the online edition of the medical journal The Lancet, was an “extremely promising development”.

“This is going to be revolutionary,” Chan told reporters. “It will change the handling of the current outbreak of Ebola and future outbreaks,” said

This and other trials of experimental immunizations were accelerated with a huge international effort., As researchers strive to achieve test potential therapies and vaccines at a time when the virus is in full circulation.

“We knew it was a race against time and the trial had to be implemented under the most challenging circumstances,” says John-Arne Rattingen, chief control of infectious diseases at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and president of the group that led the trial.

The trial in Guinea to assess the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine began on March 23. a single dose of VSV-ZEBOV was tested using the strategy of “ring vaccination” in which people close to someone diagnosed with Ebola were immunized either immediately or a few days later.

As they began to emerge data showing a high rate of protection among vaccinated immediately, researchers on July 26 decided to no longer use the strategy “delayed” because it began to be clear that waiting involved unethical and unnecessary risk.

The trial continues and all participants receive a dose of the vaccine immediately. It will be extended to include children of 13-17 years and possibly to less than 6-12 years, WHO said.

“Our hope is that the vaccine now will help us end this epidemic [in Africa] and prepare for the inevitable future epidemics of Ebola, “said Jeremy Farrar, infectious disease specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust charity.

Doctors Without Borders, who led the fight against Ebola in West Africa, is asking that VSV-ZEBOV be applied in other epicenters of the current outbreak, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where they believe could cut the chains of transmission and protect health care workers.

For its part, WHO will now take charge of the fight against the virus after yesterday closed the Mission of the United Nations Emergency Response against Ebola.

“We have made progress considerable, but the crisis is not over, “he said, for his part, Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon to announce the closing of the mission.

The installed emergency mission last September in response to the slow response of WHO to disease and lack of coordination among various aid organizations.

Although new infections in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the beginning of year fell sharply, still has not overcome the virus. A single infected person is enough to sprout again the epidemic.

11,294

Dead

There was the Ebola outbreak, which began in December 2013 in Africa; Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia were the countries most affected

27787

Infected

He left the epidemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)

4000

People

participated in the trial to evaluate the experimental vaccine for Ebola, which showed “a high degree of effectiveness,” the WHO

Agencies Reuters, AP and DPA .