The Vaccine That Will End the Ebola Nightmare

The results of a trial for a vaccine developed to prevent the Ebola virus appear very promising. Researchers have announced that this vaccine, which was tested experimentally in Guinea, has shown a one hundred percent positive response. This trial, named 'Ebola! Enough Already,' was conducted by the World Health Organization and several other groups from May to August, based on the courage of individuals who volunteered to test the vaccine. A group of twenty researchers noted in a paper published on Friday that current data indicates this vaccine is one hundred percent effective. The vaccine has been tested on four thousand people, and according to the researchers, its results have been 'unprecedented.' The speed of developing a drug with such an impact is nearly unparalleled. Typically, developing a vaccine takes ten years, but scientists, doctors, and other stakeholders were able to prepare this vaccine within a year. Although researchers believe that when this drug is distributed on a larger scale in the community, its effectiveness may not remain one hundred percent, Dr. Dragoez, one of the researchers, believes that due to the dangerous state of Ebola and its mortality rate, the vaccine should be used widely. Dr. Margaret Chan, another member of the research team, states that this achievement is the result of the efforts of the Guinean government and local individuals who were willing to test the vaccine. This experimental vaccine, officially named rVSV-ZEBOV (abbreviated as VSV-EBOV), was developed by the pharmaceutical group Merck Sharp & Dohme. The drug was initially introduced in 2011 by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The Ebola virus is one of the deadliest viruses, with nearly sixty percent of those infected not surviving. This virus causes fever, nausea, and fatigue, followed by loss of appetite and muscle pain, and in 2014, it claimed nearly five thousand lives in Africa.