Needless to say, such a vaccine could NOT be challenge tested with humans. Challenge testing is where you give the vaccine, then deliberately expose the people being tested TO the pathogen against which you're seeking protection. Talk about your basic crime against humanity in this case.
HOWEVER, if repeated primate testing & extrapolated safety testing in primates & humans shows it does not carry significant health risks - it would certainly be worth trying on those lab folks who play with Ebla as well as those most likely to be in the front lines of the enxt Ebola outbreak. As long as they 'figure out' HOW ir confers immunity - don't even come close to people until they ave that nailed. When it comes to filoviruses, not knowing don't cut it...
Which reminds me - methinks we're due for an Ebloa outbreak soon & we're overdue for one to break out of Africa - perhaps just a single exported case or two, but that will cause a massive case of screaming meemies where ever it hits.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/conditions_diseases/infectious_diseases/6474797.htm
***Improved Ebola vaccine immunizes monkeys
By Rick Callahan
Associated Press
Federal scientists have developed a fast-acting, single-shot Ebola vaccine that makes monkeys immune to the lethal virus six times faster than an earlier version.
If the same approach works in humans, it could control or prevent outbreaks of the rare but horrific infection, which causes high fever, severe pain, and bleeding from the eyes as blood vessels collapse. Nearly everyone who is infected dies within a few days.
Scientists not connected with the experiment said that if the vaccine worked in other primates, it probably would work in humans.
Health workers in Africa - the only place the few outbreaks have occurred - might be the most likely recipients of an approved Ebola vaccine. Researchers who handle samples of the virus in laboratories under strictly controlled conditions also might use it.
The experimental vaccine has not been tested on humans. But Dr. Gary J. Nabel of the National Institutes of Health, one of the vaccine developers, said he hoped to have it ready for human studies by the end of next year, pending approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
Microbiologist C.J. Peters of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston said more animal trials were needed before regulatory approval of a human vaccine could be sought. He said it also would be important to determine how the vaccine conveyed its immunity and how long it would protect against the infection.
NIH researchers tested the new vaccine by giving eight macaque monkeys a single injection of a weakened virus modified with a protein from the Ebola virus.
Twenty-eight days later, the monkeys were injected with an Ebola virus strain taken from a human who died from the disease in 1995. All eight monkeys remained healthy, even those given high doses of the Ebola.
However, all the monkeys in a separate control group that were not given the vaccine died after they were exposed to the virus.
The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature.***
HOWEVER, if repeated primate testing & extrapolated safety testing in primates & humans shows it does not carry significant health risks - it would certainly be worth trying on those lab folks who play with Ebla as well as those most likely to be in the front lines of the enxt Ebola outbreak. As long as they 'figure out' HOW ir confers immunity - don't even come close to people until they ave that nailed. When it comes to filoviruses, not knowing don't cut it...
Which reminds me - methinks we're due for an Ebloa outbreak soon & we're overdue for one to break out of Africa - perhaps just a single exported case or two, but that will cause a massive case of screaming meemies where ever it hits.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/conditions_diseases/infectious_diseases/6474797.htm
***Improved Ebola vaccine immunizes monkeys
By Rick Callahan
Associated Press
Federal scientists have developed a fast-acting, single-shot Ebola vaccine that makes monkeys immune to the lethal virus six times faster than an earlier version.
If the same approach works in humans, it could control or prevent outbreaks of the rare but horrific infection, which causes high fever, severe pain, and bleeding from the eyes as blood vessels collapse. Nearly everyone who is infected dies within a few days.
Scientists not connected with the experiment said that if the vaccine worked in other primates, it probably would work in humans.
Health workers in Africa - the only place the few outbreaks have occurred - might be the most likely recipients of an approved Ebola vaccine. Researchers who handle samples of the virus in laboratories under strictly controlled conditions also might use it.
The experimental vaccine has not been tested on humans. But Dr. Gary J. Nabel of the National Institutes of Health, one of the vaccine developers, said he hoped to have it ready for human studies by the end of next year, pending approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
Microbiologist C.J. Peters of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston said more animal trials were needed before regulatory approval of a human vaccine could be sought. He said it also would be important to determine how the vaccine conveyed its immunity and how long it would protect against the infection.
NIH researchers tested the new vaccine by giving eight macaque monkeys a single injection of a weakened virus modified with a protein from the Ebola virus.
Twenty-eight days later, the monkeys were injected with an Ebola virus strain taken from a human who died from the disease in 1995. All eight monkeys remained healthy, even those given high doses of the Ebola.
However, all the monkeys in a separate control group that were not given the vaccine died after they were exposed to the virus.
The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature.***