Britons are to be the first in the world to test a new vaccine against the deadly ebola virus.Altogether 60 healthy volunteers will be given the vaccine next month in a trial led by Oxford University scientists.
If the vaccine performs as well in humans as in monkeys, the trial will be extended to 80 people in The Gambia and in Mali.
The entire trial programme is being fast-tracked – subject to ethical approval – with the intention of using the vaccine in people at high risk in West Africa early next year.
Latest figures show that more than 1,550 people have died from the virus, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
It is the worst epidemic since the disease was first identified 38 years ago and the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts the outbreak will last for many months, affecting at least 20,000 people.
At present there is no vaccine to prevent the disease and no proven treatment.
The new vaccine contains a single ebola virus protein from the strain sweeping West Africa – anyone inoculated with it cannot develop the disease itself.
It is different from the experimental medicine ZMapp being used to treat William Pooley, the first Briton to contract the virus while working as a nurse at a remote health centre in Sierra Leone.
The 29-year-old is currently in isolation at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
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