Preliminary results in human volunteers are promising from U.S. trials of one of the leading Ebola vaccine candidates.
The vaccine from British manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline — developed with the
National Institutes of Health — is one of three being sped into trials in west Africa. The aim is to test the vaccine in January on healthcare workers, burial teams and others at high risk of infection, the
Guardian reports.
The results were published Wednesday in the
New England Journal of Medicine, showing that vaccinations of the first healthy volunteers in the United States show no ill effects; all 20 developed antibodies to the virus.
"We are very encouraged by these positive first trial results showing this type of vaccine has an acceptable safety profile and can produce an immune response against Ebola in humans," Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chairman of global vaccines at GSK, told The Guardian.
The World Health Organization reports that as of Sunday, there have been 15,935 reported cases and 5,689 deaths.