Ebola vaccine hailed as possible "game changer"

Aug 6, 2015 The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that the development of an effective Ebola vaccine is near completion.

The vaccine, which is dubbed “VSV-EBOV vaccine”, is currently on trial in Guinea. According to a statement released by WHO Assistant Director General, Marie-Paule Kieny, the vaccine has proven to be highly effective:

“This analysis translates into a protection of 100 percent so far, because zero percent vaccinated developed Ebola-virus disease. But, this is with a confidence interval between 75 and 100. So, it is likely that the true result lies between 75 and 100 percent,”

She further added that although the vaccine has not been licensed yet, its randomization trial phase has been completed, so that all those at risk could receive the vaccine and the time needed to gather conclusive evidence for licensing purposes could be reduced.

She went on to refer to the vaccine as “an extremely promising development” and added that:

“If proven effective, this is going to be a game changer. It will change the management of the current Ebola outbreak and future outbreaks.”