Ebola vaccine works on monkeys

2005-06-06 08:48

Paris - A new vaccine against the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses has been successfully tested on monkeys, according to an international team of scientists quoted on Sunday by the magazine Nature Medicine.

The test model appeared "promising" for the development of future vaccines against the rapid-spreading viruses and could also be applied to other deadly viruses, the scientists said.

Twelve macaques were used in the experiments, with six being vaccinated against Ebola and six against Marburg. The vaccine was administered with a single intra-muscular injection and caused no side-effects such as fever.

Twenty-eight days after the vaccination the monkeys were subjected to a massive dose of Ebola or Marburg, according to the vaccine given. None of the animals showed any signs of the disease. However, none survived an injection of the virus from which it had not been protected.

Patient 'literally bleeds to death'

Ebola and Marburg belong to a family of viruses that cause haemorrhagic fever.

The patient literally bleeds to death, his internal organs transformed into a semi-liquid mass, his skin, eyes, gums and anus weeping blood.

They spread through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears.

An effective vaccine could be used to stem outbreaks of Ebola in central Africa.

A deadly Ebola epidemic, which broke out Uganda's northern district of Gulu in 2000, claimed more than 170 lives, out of the 428 people who contracted the disease.

And the world's worst outbreak of the Marburg virus had claimed 311 lives in Angola, a joint statement by Angola's health ministry and the World Health Organisation said last month.

- AFP