Ebola vaccine tested successfully for the first time

A vaccine against the Ebola virus, tested in West Africa for the first time in a field trial, has proved to be effective. People who had come into close with someone recently infected, and who are therefore at particularly high risk, were vaccinated. Investigators from the University of Bern were heavily involved in designing the World Health Organization (WHO) «Ebola ça Suffit» vaccine trial. The Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa has not been defeated yet, although the number of cases has dropped substantially since the start of the year. Just one Ebola case in the most heavily affected countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, can lead to a resurgence. Two vaccines that were recently developed have already undergone preliminary tests in humans. One of the vaccines, 'rVSV-ZEBOV', has now been tested in the first large field trial of efficacy and effectiveness in Guinea, West Africa.