An experiment vaccine against the Ebola virus developed by Canada will begin clinical testing on a small group of people this week.
Canada’s Health Minister, Rona Ambrose, made the announcement of Phase-1 clinical trials today (Monday).
Scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) developed the vaccine known as VSV-EBOV, which has shown great promise in animal research.
Rights to the vaccine have been licensed to NewLink Genetics through its wholly owned subsidiary BioProtection Systems
The press release from the Minister of Health’s office says the human trials, to be tested on forty healthy volunteers, will assess safety, and determine dosage and side effects.
Trials will take place at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, with outcomes expected to be determined sometime in December. Other clinical trials are being considered in Canada, Europe and Africa.
Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development updated its travel advisories for Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak Friday with a new recommendation that Canadians, “consider leaving by commercial means while they are still available” and that all non-essential travel to those countries should be avoided. It also said Canada cannot guarantee medical evacuation service is someone contracted the disease.
On Monday, a possible case of Ebola was reported at an Ottawa hospital where a patient who visited a West Africa country is being kept in isolation but as a precaution but is reported to be doing well. Specimens have been sent for testing to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, where results are expected later today..
Another case- but listed as being extremely low risk- is being reported at a Belleville Ontario hospital where another patient is being kept in isolation.
The Ebola virus disease takes its name from the Ebola River, near Yambuku, in the Democratic Republic of Congo where one of the two original outbreaks occurred in 1976.
It is believed to be carried by certain fruitbats in Africa.
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