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 Great progress has been made in Ebola vaccine development in the
last two years, according to a report by an international panel of
infectious disease experts, but this "could grind to a halt as
memories of the outbreak in West Africa begin to fade".
"The job is still not done," said Jeremy Farrar, director of the
Wellcome Trust global health charity which co-led a report on the
world's progress toward Ebola immunization.
"As Ebola infection rates come under control it's a huge concern
that complacency sets in, attention moves to more immediate threats
and Ebola vaccine development is left half-finished."
The WHO said on Tuesday that West Africa's Ebola outbreak, which
began in Guinea in late 2013 and killed more than 11,300 people in
almost 20 months, no longer constitutes a threat to international
public health.
During the epidemic, a total of 13 Ebola vaccine candidates -
including different combinations of shots - were tested in early-
and mid-stage clinical trials.
Several drugmakers, including Johnson & Johnson , Merck and
GlaxoSmithKline moved potential Ebola vaccines well into the
clinical trial process, and three late-stage, or so-called Phase
III, trials were initiated in Africa - one each in Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone.
Trials of one vaccine, Merck’s rVSV-ZEBOV, progressed far enough to
show in trials that it is safe and effective, prompting GAVI, the
global vaccine alliance, to buy 300,000 doses as a stockpile for use
during future Ebola outbreaks.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Yet so far, no Ebola vaccine has been submitted for regulatory
review and the expert panel said there are still too many unanswered
questions about Ebola vaccines.
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Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease
Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota in the
United States and a co-author of the report, cautioned the global
health officials against believing the progress made had "solved the
problem of Ebola".
"The path forward is not quite so simple, and many unresolved
challenges and questions remain," he said.
These include gaining continuing trials to get more data on the
safety and efficacy of various Ebola vaccines and engaging African
public health leaders to clarify how vaccines can be used or
evaluated in new outbreaks.
"After the hard lessons we've learned, it would be a tragedy not to
put a final stop to the current Ebola epidemic and be prepared for
the next outbreak," said Farrar.
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
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