Blog for Volunteers4Humanity
Posted on Friday, July 31, 2015 10:14 PM
 The internet has exploded with news of the preliminary results from the Guinea Ebola trial vaccination! Published in the latest edition of Lancet, researchers have announced that a new vaccine has been 100 percent effective in those that were given the vaccine. The Ebola vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, was developed by Canada's Public Health Agency and licensed to the pharmaceutical firm Merck Sharp & Dohme. World Health Organization's Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, praised the Guinean Government, the people living in the Guinea communities and WHO's partners in this project.""The AP post reported that the announced study involved several thousand people who had been near a new Ebola patient or a close contact of one. The subjects were randomly selected to get the vaccine immediately or in 3 weeks. Researchers began tracking the results ten days after they set up the groups to give time to detect anyone who might have been silently harboring the virus when the study began. After that point, none of the people in the group that had been assigned to get the vaccine right away developed Ebola, versus 16 people in the group eligible to get the vaccine after 21 days."WHO, which sponsored the study, announced that the researchers concluded in July that it would be best to provide every participant in the study with the vaccine, rather administer a placebo. So far, the epidemic has claimed more than 11,000 lives. Many believe that if VSV-EBOV is proven safe and effective, it could be used to vaccinate people in high-risk areas or halt further the progression of the disease.
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