Ebola vaccine successful on primates

Researchers in the US and Canada has successfully tested several Ebola vaccines on primates.

Scientists used several different recombinant DNA techniques to trigger a cell-mediated response to produce Ebola vaccines that were effective on monkeys and could be tested on humans for the first time in the future.

Dr Anthony Sanchez, from the centres for disease control and prevention in Atlanta, said during a presentation on Ebola vaccine development: "Ebola vaccine trials using nonhuman primates have provided unambiguous results and have allowed the development of protective vaccines to progress rapidly."

Figures suggest there have been over 1,500 cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in humans. Symptoms include fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain. The fever has a mortality rate of around 90 per cent in humans.

Dr Sanchez noted that it is difficult to create a vaccine for Ebola "because simple 'killed' viruses that just trigger an antibody response from the blood are not effective".

He stated they needed to create the cell-mediated response, which involves bodies producing killer T-cells before immunity is strong enough to prevent of clear an infection.