An experimental vaccine for Ebola has been developed by the World Health Organization and has displayed a 100% success rate on its trials in Guinea.
"It's the first vaccine for which efficacy has been shown," said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, a WHO assistant director-general and the study's lead author.
The vaccine was distributed to 5,837 people last year in Guinea, according to the Lancet medical journal. Within 10 days, all participants were free of the virus; they were followed up on for 84 days. It has proven to be nearly free of major side-effects (minor side-effects included headaches, fatigue, and muscle pain, but what doesn't), except for 80 people who had severe problems, only 2 of which could accurately be linked to the vaccine. All recovered without complications.
Other treatments are still under study, and other strains of Ebola such as Sudan still need a vaccine.
Sources: The Lancet Al Jazeera NY Times
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @04:50AM
Thanks, are you sure that does not refer to some subgroup? I am not willing to put the effort towards parsing phrases like this right now:
And no, you have misinterpreted my concerns. I expect attempts to avoid obvious confounds, and discussion of alternative explanations in the paper with justification for why some (including not obvious) could not be dealt with. Sampling bias, which is all they discuss, is one tiny part.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @12:43PM
Yes.
As for the quote:
The ring strategy used contact tracing from an index case, so anyone who had direct contact with someone with Ebola (contacts) or indirect contact through another person (contacts of contacts).
Patients were randomly assigned to the immediate or delayed vaccination group prior to vaccination, but not all patients consented or showed up to be vaccinated (never vaccinated group).
The numbers for these groups and the percent compliance for each day of interaction is in the supplement.