Ebola: US to Conduct Vaccine Trial in Nigeria

The United States health officials have said
they are considering a trial test of the recentl

launched Ebola vaccine in Nigeria, as they also

prepare to test the vaccine in The Gambia and
Mali in mid-September.
The Ebola vaccine was developed by the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID), a part of the US National
Institutes of Health, and GlaxoSmithKline. The
testing is expected to start on Tuesday with 20
volunteers to see if the virus is safe for use on
humans.
According to the statement, these trials are
conducted in healthy adults who are not
infected with Ebola virus to determine if the
vaccine is safe and induces an adequate
immune response. The statement reads in
part:
The US Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention has initiated discussions with
Ministry of Health officials in Nigeria
about the prospects for conducting a
Phase 1 safety study of the vaccine among
healthy adults in that country.
The pace of human safety testing for
experimental Ebola vaccines has been
expedited in response to the ongoing
Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. The
early-stage trial will begin initial human
testing of a vaccine co-developed by
NIAID and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and will
evaluate the experimental vaccine’s safety
and ability to generate an immune system
response in healthy adults. Testing will
take place at the NIH Clinical Center in

Bethesda, Maryland,”