Trial on safety and immunogenicity of Ebola vaccines yields promising results

© Inserm/Patrick Delapierre, 2018 Ebola epidemics occur periodically in various sub-Saharan African countries. While vaccines exist and have already received WHO Prequalification against the Zaire ebolavirus species, it is essential to pursue and intensify efforts to supplement the available data to develop a safe and effective Ebola vaccine strategies in adults and children alike. The PREVAC international consortium (see box), which includes scientists from Inserm and from institutions in Africa, USA and UK, has published the results of a large-scale randomized clinical trial in West Africa in the New England Journal of Medicine . These results confirm the safety of three different vaccine regimens, and suggest that an immune response is induced and maintained for up to 12 months. In a context where many sub-Saharan African countries regularly face Ebola outbreaks, vaccines are seen as a central tool to fight the spread of the disease. Since 2019, two vaccines have obtained WHO Prequalification against the Zaire ebolavirus species: the vaccine rVSV'G-ZEBOV-GP developed by Merck, Sharpe & Dohme, Corp., and the Ad26.ZEBOV and MVA-BN-Filo  vaccine regimen from Johnson & Johnson. Beyond these advances, research on Ebola vaccines must continue.