Ebola Vaccine Showed 100% Efficacy in Ongoing Study

The deadly Ebola disease may have met its match with positive results reported from a trial which tested the Zaire Ebolavirus (rVSV-ZEBOV) vaccine.

Developed by Merck, the safety and efficacy of rVSV-ZEBOV has been assessed in more than 9,000 participants throughout 10 studies. This is the first time, however, that the vaccine has proved to be effective in real-life situations. Researchers from multiple institutions, including the World Health Organization (WHO), Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Health Ministry of Guinea, and Médecins sans Frontières, made significant discoveries in a phase III trial.

Roger M. Perlmutter, president of Merck, said that, “…the extraordinary efforts of the team in Guinea and other experts have yielded interim results that suggest a potential role for our rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine in the fight against Ebola disease.”

In the latest research published in The Lancet, a total of 7,651 participants were given rVSV-ZEBOV ring vaccination between April 1, 2015 and July 20, 2015. They were randomly assigned to either receive immediate or delayed vaccination (4,123 vs. 3,528 participants).

Six days following the vaccination, no Ebola diagnoses were made in either group. After 10 days, there were no cases of Ebola with symptom onset in the immediate vaccination group; however, there were 16 cases in the delayed vaccination group.The authors noted that 43 severe adverse events were reported with one being “casually related to vaccination.”

The findings suggest that rVSV-ZEBOV can be an effective method during an Ebola outbreak.

“This is an extremely promising development,”Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said in a statement.

While the results are preliminary, additional studies are already underway to prove the sufficiency of rVSV-ZEBOV.