Ebola outbreak: 1st human trials of Canadian vaccine start in U.S.

[applegrove]

Ebola outbreak: 1st human trials of Canadian vaccine start in U.S.

The Associated Press/the CBC

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ebola-outbreak-1st-human-trials-of-canadian-vaccine-start-in-u-s-1.2796859

"SNIP......................


The first human clinical trials of a Canadian-developed Ebola vaccine, VSV-EBOV, begin in Maryland today to assess the vaccine's safety and determine the appropriate dosage to fight the virus that has killed more than 4,000 people, largely in West Africa, Health Minister Rona Ambrose has announced.

"We are able to share some very promising and hopeful news in the fight against Ebola," Ambrose said from Calgary.

.......

The vaccine, which was developed by scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, will be tested on 20 healthy volunteers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md.

Studies in primates have shown the vaccine prevents infections, if given before exposure, and increases survival chances among those who get it quickly after exposure.

The results from the Phase 1 human trials will be completed by December, Ambrose said, although no specific date was given.

She said the vaccine has been shown to be "100 per cent effective" in preventing the spread of the Ebola virus when tested on animals.




........................SNIP"

[NYC_SKP]

1. I just became a participant in a 15,000 person clinical trial of a vaccine against a bacterium.

Stanford asked me and I felt obliged to help fight an increasingly problematic infectious disease.

I wish these researchers well.

[applegrove]

2. Good on ya!

[NYC_SKP]

4. Stanford saved my life.

So it wasn't hard to volunteer when they asked.

[kestrel91316]

3. Good luck with that. Bacterins (bacterial vaccines) typically have far nastier side effects

than viral vaccines. I forget the biochemical explanation for that. But it's why tetanus vaccine hurts so much. And they tend not to have the lasting power of viral vaccines either.

[NobodyHere]

5. When I first read the title.

I missed the "Ebola outbreak" part and thought there was a vaccine out to prevent Americans from becoming Canadians.

[KamaAina]

14. I'm not sure I'd take that one!

That might turn me into an anti-vax nutter!

[TorchTheWitch]

6. sounds very encouraging

I didn't have any idea that anyone was this far along in developing a vaccine.

[countryjake]

8. Did you see the PBS Ebola show that aired last week on Nova?

Called "Surviving Ebola" it talked quite a bit about the work being done up at that National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and on others researching the disease elsewhere. They also showed how the treatment that was administered in Atlanta to that first doctor and nurse (possibly saving both their lives), ZMapp, is produced in tobacco plants.

It was a very interesting program.

You can still watch it online:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/surviving-ebola.html

[Recursion]

10. So you're saying I should take up smoking to avoid ebola?

Done and done.

[countryjake]

12. Ya silly, wouldn't that be the bees knees! No, they grow the antibodies...

in tobacco plants, injecting the leaves with a known virus that normally attacks tobacco that's been modified with a gene to produce the protein antibodies needed to fight off Ebola. Each little leaf naturally builds up defenses in its cells and the scientists then take that protein and purify it into the needed drug, ZMapp.

The most important line from that entire hour show was that the major drug corporations aren't likely to be interested in investing their money for such research and intensive production on any drug that has little potential for profit.

[closeupready]

16. Kicking to watch later.

Thanks.

[countryjake]

17. I'm not sure how much longer it'll be available, watched it last Wed on tv...

and I think that PBS only leaves their first run programs up on the web for a week. I looked for it at Comcast On Demand before I'd checked at the PBS website last night and it's definitely not replaying that way. I guess they would rather sell the DVD than inform the country.

The brief history of the disease that they covered made it well worth the watch, but the part on all the research that's been done around the world was fascinating, especially when they interviewed some of the survivors from an Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 2000 and how scientists are studying their natural antibodies to develop a cure.

[freshwest]

9. CDC has worked on Ebola for decades, announced a vaccine trial in September, to come out in January.

Since this is going to the USA at Walter Reed, no doubt Canada and the CDC collaborated on this with the WHO. I posted on this in September but not the Canadian work.

With all the media hype, people are forgetting it's just a virus, that's been known about for many years. One of many very nasty and deadly ones. There's always a solution or treatment if health care infrastructure is there.

[Recursion]

11. It's interesting: ebola comes out in the developed world once a decade or so for the past 40 years

and every time people act like this has never happened before.

[toddwv]

7. That's impossible...

Everyone knows that only private industry can save us all from everything!!!

[countryjake]

13. kickety!

[zappaman]

15. I don't trust the Canadians not to load up that vaccine with autism.

So no thanks.