Ebola vaccine to be available 2015

The World Health Organisation said Saturday that Ebola virus vaccines produced by GlaxoSmithKline would be available next year, 2015 and that clinical trials may begin next month.

 Speaking to a French radio station, Jean-Marie Okwo Bele, the WHO’s head of vaccines and immunisation said:“We are targeting September for the start of clinical trials, first in the United States and certainly in African countries, since that’s where we have the cases.

“We think that if we start in September, we could already have results by the end of the year. And since this is an emergency, we can put emergency procedures in place … so that we can have a vaccine available by 2015.”

There is currently no available cure or vaccine for the dreaded Ebola virus.

Several other vaccines are being tested, one of which is ZMapp produced by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical. ZMapp, has shown promising results on monkeys and has so far proven effective in treating two Americans who were brough back home to the US after being infected in the line of duty in Liberia.