EBOLA TRIAL VOLUNTEER IMMUNIZED
The first healthy volunteer has received an experimental Ebola vaccine in Oxford.
Ruth Atkins, an NHS communications manager said afterwards she felt "absolutely fine".She is the first of 60 volunteers who will receive the jab in Oxford, with further trials due to begin in Africa next month.
Ms Atkins heard about the need for volunteers while driving home listening to BBC Radio Oxford.
She said: "I volunteered because the situation in West Africa is so tragic and I thought being part of this vaccination process was something small I could do to hopefully make a huge impact. "
The vaccine contains only a small portion of genetic material from the virus, so it cannot cause the disease.
Ms Atkins said she was not worried about safety, but had had to reassure her 15-year-old son who initially thought she was being given Ebola and would die.
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Normally it would take years of human trials before a completely new vaccine was approved for use.
But such is the urgency of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that this experimental vaccine is being fast tracked at an astonishing rate.
If the trials are successful, it could be used to immunise health workers in affected areas by the end of the year.
By then, around 10,000 doses should be available, and will be used to protect health workers in the worst affected regions of West Africa.
The vaccine is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health.
culled from BBC News
1 comment:
Wow that was brave of her. Great job!
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