Latest on Ebola .......

Latest on the Ebola vaccine: As the war against Ebola continues, several pharmaceutical companies and institutions have worked and are still working to procure a vaccine that may help nip the current outbreak in the bud and also help to prevent future outbreaks. This venture hasn't been without challenges. Stockpiling, storage and cost effectiveness are a few of the challenges. The need for a multivalent vaccine also is challenging, this is due to fact that there is more than one strain of the virus. The Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan strains have been recognized. The required speed is also a major challenge, given the recent and ongoing outbreak. Nevertheless, the promising vaccines have to go through necessary tests and checks before been validated for use amongst humans. Trial of the Ebola Vaccines begins ... As the Ebola epidemic in West Africa subsides, the Liberian Government in collaboration with the US government began a Ebola Vaccine trial in Liberia on Monday Feb 2 2015. The two vaccines being tried were said to have passed the first stage of the human safety tests. One was developed by the National institute of health and manufactured by Glaxo Smith and Kline. The other by Canadian health officials and licensed to two companies in the US ( Merck and New link genetics ) 12 volunteers are targeted for the first day. Hopefully numbers will increase as the trial continues, about 600 volunteers are expected to take part in the phase one trials, however 27000 people can participate. Emmanuel Lansana (male, 43 yrs) was the first to receive the vaccine. Volunteers are being counseled before the vaccine is administered and are watched for a period of 30 mins thereafter. Nurses are being trained who will watch the volunteers in the months to come. Close to 9000 lives have been lost in this outbreak which was first noticed in December 2013. It majorly impacted 3 West African countries Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Few cases were reported in Nigeria, Mali and the US. The UK and Spain had a single case each. A total of 22000 people were infected. Health officials have relentlessly combated the virus with basic public Health measures and cases seem to be dwindling.