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According to Bruce Lee of Forbes magazine, the world now has an actual vaccine effective against Ebola.
It's official. We now have a real Ebola vaccine. Not a kind-of-almost-sort-of-there vaccine. Not an experimental-use vaccine. Not a vaccine just for macaques. No, this is a vaccine that the European Commission has just approved for use in humans, the first of its kind.
It is worth noting that there are four variants of Ebola that infect humans, however the one this vaccine "Ervebo" is effective against is the deadly Zaire Ebola virus.
Ervebo is a genetically engineered, replication-competent, attenuated live vaccine. Data from clinical trials and compassionate use programs have shown that Ervebo protects against Ebola virus disease in humans following a single dose administration.
The vaccine has been tested on approximately 16,000 people so far with very good results
Health officials have been using the vaccine on an experimental basis to try to control Ebola outbreaks that have been going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [...] the war-torn DRC hasn't been the easiest place to test the vaccine:
Nevertheless, researchers managed to test the efficacy of the vaccine in the country. As the WHO reported in April, this vaccine had an estimated protective efficacy of 97.5% in field studies there. That would mean if a hundred people vaccinated were exposed to the virus, less than three would end up getting infected. That's a remarkably high efficacy. After all, nothing in life is 100%. However, keep in mind that the efficacy of a vaccine also depends on how many people around you are vaccinated
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing Merck's application for approval of the vaccine.
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(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday November 14 2019, @05:36PM (3 children)
The topic lead me off in a tangent of looking up smallpox vaccines. The delivery method leaves something to be desired. Emphasis mine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifurcated_needle [wikipedia.org]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday November 15 2019, @02:27AM (2 children)
In my generation, everyone had that smallpox vaccine scar, usually on the right shoulder and about half an inch across. We regarded it as a sign of civilization.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday November 15 2019, @06:18PM (1 child)
My older brother has such a scar, but I do not, as the vaccine was phased out between our vaccine schedule dates. However, I received the vaccine more recently as a member of the military. I didn't develop a scar.
I didn't count the number of bifurcated needle jabs I got, though.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday November 15 2019, @08:03PM
You must be a young'un, then. P)
My sister's scar is about half the size of mine (being old standard type), and she got hers 6 or 7 years later (1964?); I remember being told the reason was "now with fewer needles!"
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.