THE first Ebola vaccine trial has begun in Africa under the supervision of the University of Maryland, US.
“This is just the critical first step in a series of additional clinical trials that will have to be carried out to fully evaluate the promising vaccine,” Samba Sow, Director of Mali’s vaccine development center, told U.S. based network, NBC.
“However, if it is eventually shown to work and if this information can be generated fast enough, it could become a public health tool to bring the current, and future, Ebola virus disease epidemics under control.” The first Africa based trial is being conducted in Mali.
The trial in Mali was expedited given the threat posed by the Ebola epidemic in nearby countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
University of Maryland School of Medicine official Dr. Myron Levine said the latest trial could “alter the dynamic of the epidemic” if it’s successful.
“This research will give us crucial information about whether the vaccine is safe, well tolerated and capable of stimulating adequate immune responses in the highest priority target population, health care workers in West Africa,” Levine told NBC.
Trials for other potential Ebola vaccines are also taking place in the United Kingdom and Bethesda, Md., where the NIH is located.
With the latest death toll from Ebola now at 3,439 in the three worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, World Bank Group says if the epidemic was to significantly infect people in neighboring countries, some of which have much larger economies, the two-year regional financial impact could reach US$32.6 billion by the end of 2015.
The new economic impact assessment from the World Bank Group report noted, as it is far from certain that the epidemic will be fully contained by December 2014 and in light of the considerable uncertainty about its future trajectory, two alternative scenarios are used to estimate the medium-term (2015) impact of the epidemic, extending to the end of calendar year 2015.
A Low Ebola scenario corresponds to rapid containment within the three most severely affected countries, while High Ebola corresponds to slower containment in the three countries, with broader regional contagion.
According to the World Bank Group’s new analysis, the economic impacts of Ebola are already very serious in the core three countries particularly Liberia and Sierra Leone and could become catastrophic under a slow-containment, High Ebola scenario.
In broader regional terms, the economic impact could be limited if immediate national and international action stop the epidemic and alleviate the aversion behavior or fear factor that is causing neighboring countries to close their borders, and airlines and other regional and international companies to suspend their commercial activities in the three worst-affected countries.
The successful containment of Ebola in Nigeria and Senegal so far is evidence that this is possible, given some existing health system capacity and a resolute policy response.
With Ebola s potential to inflict massive economic costs on Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and the rest of their neighbors in West Africa, the international community must find ways to get past logistical roadblocks and bring in more doctors and trained medical staff, more hospital beds, and more health and development support to help stop Ebola in its tracks, says Jim Yong Kim, the President of the World Bank Group said.
The international community now must act on the knowledge that weak public health infrastructure, institutions, and systems in many fragile countries are a threat not only to their own citizens but also to their trading partners and the world at large, WBG President Kim said. The enormous economic cost of the current outbreak to the affected countries and the world could have been avoided by prudent ongoing investment in health systems-strengthening.
The World Bank Group is supporting country responses in line with the WHO Roadmap, and is coordinating assistance closely with the United Nations and other international and country partners.
As the new report notes, effort and memory will be required to sustain and continue strengthening this early warning network and the complementary investments in effective and resilient African health systems after the Ebola outbreak has been contained.
African Eye News
