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| [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Conakry, Guinea: Based on promising data from initial clinical trials in late 2014, World Health Organizatio (WHO) and its partners will launch a Phase III trial in Guinea on 7 March to test the VSV-EBOV vaccine for efficacy and effectiveness to prevent Ebola.
The vaccine was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada. A second vaccine will be tested in a sequential study, as supply becomes available.
Vaccination will take place in areas of Basse Guinée, the region that currently has the highest number of cases in the country.
The trial strategy adopted will be "ring vaccination", based on the approach used to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s. This involves the identification of a newly diagnosed Ebola case – the "index case" – and the tracing of all his/her contacts. The contacts are vaccinated if they give their consent.
The objectives of the trial are two-fold: to assess if the vaccine protects the contacts who were vaccinated and if vaccinating the contacts will create a buffer - or ring of protected individuals - around the index case to prevent further spread of the infection. Vaccination will also be proposed to front-line workers in the area where the trial will take place.
Canadian governmental institutions are supporting the trial through the provision of critical training and support to the African research teams conducting the trial, in addition to scientific advice.
In the last six months WHO has convened a series of emergency consultations with scientists, ethicists, regulators and policy makers to identify potential preventive and therapeutic products to help stem the epidemic. Canada's VSV and GSK cAd3 vaccines quickly emerged as promising tools due to prior successful studies on non-human primates.
WHO's partners in VSV-EBOV vaccine's trials are the Health Ministry of Guinea, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Epicentre and The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). -UNifeed