Vaccines

The trial of the vaccine started in the US this month

The US, UK and Canada are testing different kinds of vaccine in controlled clinical trials.

The aim is to have 20,000 doses that could be used in West Africa by early next year.

Normally it would take years of human trials before a completely new vaccine was approved for use.

But such is the urgency of the Ebola outbreak that experimental vaccines are being fast-tracked at an astonishing rate.
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Trials in monkeys have been promising. But they get a very different type of Ebola to humans”
Dr Ben Neuman
University of Reading

Russia recently announced it is also developing three vaccines, with one being ready for clinical trials within three months.

David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "There's been a lot of international attention to making sure that clinical trials of new vaccines and medicines are done.

"And my feeling is that if the resources continue those studies could possibly be begun and already provide some initial answers before Christmas."

It is hoped these vaccines will offer protection by delivering a harmless agent that will teach the body how to mount an immune response against Ebola.

If the person then came into contact with the real virus, their body should already know how to fight it.

Tests are ongoing, but there is no certainty how well they will work.

Dr Ben Neuman, an expert in virus and from the University of Reading, said: "Trials in monkeys have been promising. But they get a very different type of Ebola to humans.

"In a person it's a different kind of disease and we don't know for sure if the same treatments will work.

"Plus we need to scale up the doses. People are a big, walking test tube essentially."

Given the size of the outbreak, it's also unlikely that there will be enough vaccine or medicine to go round - at least initially.

Until these medicines to fight Ebola are ready, the focus has to be on disease control.

It was basic techniques that beat previous outbreaks. The hope is they will do the same now.