Ebola vaccine not before 2015, says WHO

On 9^th August 2014, World Health Organization (WHO) said that an effective vaccine against the deadly Ebola will not be available before 2015.

There is currently no available cure or vaccine for Ebola but a candidate is being rushed through the trial process to become available by 2015.

Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant Director-general of the UN Health Agency said that since this is an emergency, we can put emergency procedures in place and have a vaccine available by 2015.

Several vaccines are being currently tested, with a treatment made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical called Zmapp has shown promising results on monkeys and has shown positive effective in treating two Americans recently infected in Africa.

WHO meeting on the issue took place on 11^th August 2014.

In this meeting world's top medical ethicists were present. They have decided an experimental treatment for Ebola can be used on patients infected in the outbreak in West Africa.

Currently there is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development.

The recent treatment of two health workers from US, with experimental medicine has raised questions about whether medicine that has never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak.

Spread of the Ebola virus infection in West Africa an international health emergency: WHO

Calling the ongoing Ebola outbreak (EVD) an "extraordinary event," the WHO announced the spread of the infection in West Africa an international health emergency.

The Emergency Committee declared that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is

• Public health risk to other States"
• Possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus, the intensive community and health facility transmission patterns and the weak health systems in the currently affected and most at-risk countries.

 As per Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant director-general of the UN health agency

• There is an unusual situation in this Ebola outbreak.
• This disease with a high fatality rate without any proven treatment or vaccine.
• UNhealth agency need to ask the medical ethicists to give us guidance on what the responsible thing to do is.
• Next week, WHO will convene a panel to explore the use of experimental treatment in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
• The gold standard for assessing new medicine involves a series of trials in humans, starting small to make sure the medicine is safe to use.
• Then, the studies are expanded to more people to see how effective it is, and how best to use it.
• The guiding principle with use of any new medicine is 'do no harm'. Safety is always the main concern.
• Two US aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia appear to be improving after receiving an unapproved medicine called ZMapp. The drug has been tested on monkeys.
• There are antiviral drugs, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines under study that have shown varying degrees of effectiveness in animals that have been infected with or exposed to the Ebola virus.
• Medical agencies in rich counties affected by Ebola would begin discussions with companies and labs developing these products and then make rapid decisions about which of them might be appropriate for compassionate use.
• The African countries where the current outbreaks of Ebola are occurring should have the same opportunity.
• African governments should be allowed to make informed decisions about whether or not to use these products, for example to protect and treat health-care workers who run especially high risks of infection.
• The World Health Organization could assist African countries with developing rigorous protocols for the use and study of experimental approaches to treatment and prevention, while coordinating more traditional containment measures.
• As the only body with the necessary international authority, it must take on this greater leadership role.